america the farewell tour

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America: The Farewell Tour

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Table of Contents

• Rave and Reviews

About The Book

About the author.

Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent and bureau chief in the Middle East and the Balkans for fifteen years for  The New York Times.  He previously worked overseas for  The Dallas Morning News ,  The Christian Science Monitor , and NPR. He is host of the Emmy Award­–nominated RT America show  On Contact.  Hedges, who holds a Master of Divinity from Harvard University, is the author of numerous books, and was a National Book Critics Circle finalist for  War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning . He has taught at Columbia University, New York University, Princeton University, and the University of Toronto. He has taught college credit courses through Rutgers University in the New Jersey prison system since 2013.

Product Details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (August 27, 2019)
• Length: 400 pages
• ISBN13: 9781501152689

Browse Related Books

• Political Science > Public Policy > Environmental Policy
• History > United States > 21st Century
• Political Science > Government > General

Raves and Reviews

“Searing portraits . . . of individuals victimized in six arenas that [Hedges] explores in detail: drug addiction, pornography, gambling, the criminal justice system, extremist groups and the search for meaningful, well-paid work. He takes the reader inside these issues in ways that are often telling and memorable.”

– Thomas Carothers, The Washington Post

“Chris Hedges wants us to face realities. Our society is unraveling, institutionally and structurally, and is being replaced by the corporate state of merging big business and government. Commercialism overwhelms civic values, impoverishes its subjects, and reaches into childhoods bypassing parental authority. Poverty, addiction, gambling, and hopelessness spread like epidemics. Only we the people can reverse the disintegration of democracy by plutocracy. In America: The Farewell Tour, Chris Hedges depicts the horrifying truths on the ground from which resistance rises to jolt us into an active, realizable culture of reconstruction.”

– Ralph Nader

"An exceedingly dark, passionate, and provocative book, certain to arouse controversy but offering a point of view that needs to be heard."

“Chris Hedges is perhaps today’s most important public intellectual, and America: the Farewell Tour is perhaps his most important book. If we as a society are able to move past our current ‘sickness unto death,’ as Kierkegaard put it, it will be in great measure thanks to books like this one.”

– Derrick Jensen, author of A Language Older Than Words and The Culture of Make Believe

“Hedges writes a requiem for the American dream. . . . [A] fiery sermon that weighs the nation and finds it wanting.”

– Kirkus Reviews

“Hedges’s latest critique of late-stage capitalist America is forceful and direct."

– Publishers Weekly

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America: The Farewell Tour Hardcover – 21 Aug. 2018

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• Print length 388 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Simon & Schuster
• Publication date 21 Aug. 2018
• Dimensions 15.88 x 2.54 x 22.86 cm
• ISBN-10 150115267X
• ISBN-13 978-1501152672
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Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster (21 Aug. 2018)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 388 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 150115267X
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1501152672
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.88 x 2.54 x 22.86 cm
• Best Sellers Rank: 772,733 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books )

About the author

Chris hedges.

Chris Hedges is a cultural critic and author who was a foreign correspondent for nearly two decades for The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor and National Public Radio. He reported from Latin American, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He was a member of the team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for The New York Times coverage of global terrorism, and he received the 2002 Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism. Hedges, who holds a Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School, is the author of the bestsellers American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle and was a National Book Critics Circle finalist for his book War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. He is a Senior Fellow at The Nation Institute and writes an online column for the web site Truthdig. He has taught at Columbia University, New York University, Princeton University and the University of Toronto.

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America, The Farewell Tour Hardcover – Aug. 21 2018

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• Print length 400 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Knopf Canada
• Publication date Aug. 21 2018
• Dimensions 15.24 x 2.54 x 22.86 cm
• ISBN-10 0735275955
• ISBN-13 978-0735275959
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About the author, excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved., product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Knopf Canada (Aug. 21 2018)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0735275955
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0735275959
• Item weight ‏ : ‎ 567 g
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.24 x 2.54 x 22.86 cm
• #457 in Sociology of Class
• #524 in 21st Century U.S. History
• #524 in United States 21st Century History (Books)

About the author

Chris hedges.

Chris Hedges is a cultural critic and author who was a foreign correspondent for nearly two decades for The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor and National Public Radio. He reported from Latin American, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He was a member of the team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for The New York Times coverage of global terrorism, and he received the 2002 Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism. Hedges, who holds a Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School, is the author of the bestsellers American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle and was a National Book Critics Circle finalist for his book War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. He is a Senior Fellow at The Nation Institute and writes an online column for the web site Truthdig. He has taught at Columbia University, New York University, Princeton University and the University of Toronto.

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America: The Farewell Tour

• 4.2 • 35 Ratings

Publisher Description

Chris Hedges’s profound and unsettling examination of America in crisis is “an exceedingly…provocative book, certain to arouse controversy, but offering a point of view that needs to be heard” ( Booklist ), about how bitter hopelessness and malaise have resulted in a culture of sadism and hate. America, says Pulitzer Prize­–winning reporter Chris Hedges, is convulsed by an array of pathologies that have arisen out of profound hopelessness, a bitter despair, and a civil society that has ceased to function. The opioid crisis; the retreat into gambling to cope with economic distress; the pornification of culture; the rise of magical thinking; the celebration of sadism, hate, and plagues of suicides are the physical manifestations of a society that is being ravaged by corporate pillage and a failed democracy. As our society unravels, we also face global upheaval caused by catastrophic climate change. All these ills presage a frightening reconfiguration of the nation and the planet. Donald Trump rode this disenchantment to power. In his “forceful and direct” ( Publishers Weekly ) America: The Farewell Tour , Hedges argues that neither political party, now captured by corporate power, addresses the systemic problem. Until our corporate coup d’état is reversed these diseases will grow and ravage the country. “With sharply observed detail, Hedges writes a requiem for the American dream” ( Kirkus Reviews ) and seeks to jolt us out of our complacency while there is still time.

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY JUN 4, 2018

Journalist Hedges's latest critique of late-stage capitalist America is forceful and direct, reflecting a weary despair backed up by diligent reporting. He sees the ills of drugs, gambling, pornography, hate groups, mass incarceration, and an oppressive state as evidence of a "creeping corporate coup d' tat," decries the fiction of an economic recovery, and paints the election of Donald Trump and the ascendancy of "his coterie of billionaires, generals, half-wits, Christian fascists, criminals, racists and moral deviants" as embodying "the moral rot unleashed by unfettered capitalism." He turns an unflinching eye on the opioid crisis, the evisceration of organized labor, and the resurgence of hate groups, and supports his contention that laborers are on a "global plantation built by the powerful" with harrowing descriptions of sex work in the pornography-industrial complex. In Hedges's view, the few positive responses left to Americans are to band together for small-scale socialist enterprise and community, and engage in "a global fight for life against corporate tyranny" as exemplified by the protests against industry might and police power in Standing Rock, S.Dak., and Ferguson, Mo. Though this account is trenchant, even the staunchest adherents of Hedges's unreconstructed socialist views may feel drained by the unrelenting bleakness of its worldview.

Customer Reviews

Brilliantly clear.

As usual, Chris’s depth of knowledge and clarity of thinking are unmatched.

Hedge’s portrait of life in 21st century America is bleak, and said to say, accurate.

porno and other bad behavior+Trump hate

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Please, read or listen to this book.

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Publisher's summary

A profound and provocative examination of America in crisis, where unemployment, deindustrialization, and a bitter hopelessness and malaise have resulted in an epidemic of diseases of despair - drug abuse, gambling, suicide, magical thinking, xenophobia, and a culture of sadism and hate.

America, says Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Chris Hedges, is convulsed by an array of pathologies that have arisen out of profound hopelessness, a bitter despair and a civil society that has ceased to function. The opioid crisis, the retreat into gambling to cope with economic distress, the pornification of culture, the rise of magical thinking, the celebration of sadism, hate, and plagues of suicides are the physical manifestations of a society that is being ravaged by corporate pillage and a failed democracy. As our society unravels, we also face global upheaval caused by catastrophic climate change. All these ills presage a frightening reconfiguration of the nation and the planet.

Donald Trump rode this disenchantment to power. In America: The Farewell Tour , Hedges argues that neither political party, now captured by corporate power, addresses the systemic problem. Until our corporate coup d’état is reversed, these diseases will grow and ravage the country. A poignant cry reported from communities across the country, America: The Farewell Tour seeks to jolt us out of our complacency while there is still time.

• Unabridged Audiobook
• Categories: History

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In Putin Country: A Journey into the Real Russia , Garrels crafts an intimate portrait of the nation's heartland. We meet ostentatious mafiosos, upwardly mobile professionals, impassioned activists, scheming taxi drivers with dark secrets, and beleaguered steel workers. We discover surprising subcultures, like the LGBT residents of Chelyablinsk who bravely endure an upsurge in homophobia fueled by Putin's rhetoric of Russian "moral superiority" yet still nurture a vibrant if clandestine community of their own.

Interesting dive into Russia today

• By Keith on 03-25-16

After America

• Get Ready for Armageddon

By: Mark Steyn

• Narrated by: Mark Steyn
• Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins
• Overall 4.5 out of 5 stars 701
• Performance 4.5 out of 5 stars 622
• Story 4.5 out of 5 stars 622

In his giant New York Times best seller, America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It , Mark Steyn predicted collapse for the rest of the Western World. Now, he adds, America has caught up with Europe on the great rush to self-destruction. What will a world without American leadership look like? It won’t be pretty—not for you and not for your children. America’s decline won’t be gradual, like an aging Europe sipping espresso at a café until extinction. No, America’s decline will be a wrenching affair marked by violence and possibly secession.

• By Peter on 11-11-11

We Gon' Be Alright

• Notes on Race and Resegregation

By: Jeff Chang

• Narrated by: Jeff Chang
• Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins
• Overall 4.5 out of 5 stars 99
• Performance 4.5 out of 5 stars 83
• Story 4.5 out of 5 stars 83

In these provocative, powerful essays acclaimed writer/journalist Jeff Chang ( Can't Stop Won't Stop , Who We Be ) takes an incisive and wide-ranging look at the recent tragedies and widespread protests that have shaken the country. Through deep reporting with key activists and thinkers, passionately personal writing, and distinguished cultural criticism, We Gon' Be Alright links #BlackLivesMatter to #OscarsSoWhite, Ferguson to Washington, DC, and more.

a conversation that needs to happen

• By Angie B on 03-11-17

The Enemy Within

• Saving America from the Liberal Assault on Our Churches, Schools & Military

By: Michael Savage

• Narrated by: Cameron Beierle
• Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
• Overall 4 out of 5 stars 75
• Performance 4.5 out of 5 stars 43
• Story 4.5 out of 5 stars 40

Michael Savage's powerful, unmatched mix of razor-sharp wit and explosive socio-political commentary has made him into a cultural phenomenon, becoming not only one of America's most popular radio talk-show hosts, but also a best-selling author. This is his latest assault on the corrosive effects of liberalism on American culture.

Still applies

• By gary lee johnson on 02-05-19

God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy

By: Mike Huckabee

• Narrated by: Mike Huckabee
• Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
• Overall 4.5 out of 5 stars 176
• Performance 4.5 out of 5 stars 156
• Story 4.5 out of 5 stars 153

In Mike Huckabee's new book God, Guns, Grits and Gravy , he asks the question, "Have I been taken to a different planet than the one on which I grew up?" The New York Times best-selling author explores today's American culture, drawing from his travels as a presidential candidate to present average, small-town people and families, and their optimistic resilience in the face of hard times.

• By Dorothy Ella on 02-13-15

Notes on a Foreign Country

• An American Abroad in a Post-American World

By: Suzy Hansen

• Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
• Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
• Overall 4.5 out of 5 stars 199
• Performance 4.5 out of 5 stars 172
• Story 4.5 out of 5 stars 169

In the wake of the September 11 attacks and the US-led invasion of Iraq, Suzy Hansen, who grew up in an insular conservative town in New Jersey, was enjoying early success as a journalist for a high-profile New York newspaper. Increasingly, though, the disconnect between the chaos of world events and the response at home took on pressing urgency for her. Seeking to understand the Muslim world that had been reduced to scaremongering headlines, she moved to Istanbul.

A MUST-READ for all Truth-Seeking American wh

• By Parveen Mehdi-Newton on 12-08-17

In Our Backyard

• Human Trafficking in America and What We Can Do to Stop It

By: Nita Belles

• Narrated by: Nicol Zanzarella
• Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
• Overall 4.5 out of 5 stars 130
• Performance 4.5 out of 5 stars 113
• Story 4.5 out of 5 stars 114

Human trafficking is not just something that happens in other countries. Nor is it something that just happens to "other people," such as runaways or the disenfranchised. Even kids in your own neighborhood can fall victim. But they don't have to.

• 3 out of 5 stars

A good entry to learning about HT

• By Justicepirate on 12-05-16

Fight Like Hell

• The Untold History of American Labor

By: Kim Kelly

• Narrated by: Em Grosland
• Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
• Overall 4.5 out of 5 stars 82
• Performance 4.5 out of 5 stars 71
• Story 5 out of 5 stars 71

Freed Black women organizing for protection in the Reconstruction-era South. Jewish immigrant garment workers braving deadly conditions for a sliver of independence. Asian American fieldworkers rejecting government-sanctioned indentured servitude across the Pacific. Incarcerated workers advocating for basic human rights and fair wages. The queer Black labor leader who helped orchestrate America’s civil rights movement. These are only some of the heroes who propelled American labor’s relentless push for fairness and equal protection under the law.

Eye Opening

• By Chris Haak on 06-13-23

Street Poison

• The Biography of Iceberg Slim

By: Justin Gifford

• Narrated by: J. D. Jackson
• Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
• Overall 4.5 out of 5 stars 72
• Performance 4.5 out of 5 stars 63
• Story 4.5 out of 5 stars 62

From a career as a, yes, ruthless pimp in the '40s and '50s, Iceberg Slim refashioned himself as the first and still the greatest of the "street lit" masters, whose vivid books have made him an icon to such rappers as Ice-T, Jay-Z, and Snoop Dogg and a presiding spirit of "blaxploitation" culture.

A must read for all Robert Beck fans.

• By JMKIII58 on 09-15-16

How We Can Win

• Race, History and Changing the Money Game That’s Rigged

By: Kimberly Jones

• Narrated by: Kimberly Jones
• Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
• Overall 5 out of 5 stars 125
• Performance 5 out of 5 stars 111
• Story 5 out of 5 stars 110

In How We Can Win , Jones delves into the impacts of systemic racism and reveals how her formative years in Chicago gave birth to a lifelong devotion to justice. Here, in a vital expansion of her declaration, she calls for Reconstruction 2.0, a multilayered plan to reclaim economic and social restitutions - those restitutions promised with emancipation but blocked, again and again, for more than 150 years. And, most of all, Jones delivers strategies for how we can effect change as citizens and allies while nurturing ourselves in the fight against a system that is still rigged.

Valid points made, but contradictory as well...

• By Julian C. Young on 01-28-22

Gangster Warlords

By: Ioan Grillo

• Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
• Length: 14 hrs and 55 mins
• Overall 4.5 out of 5 stars 352
• Performance 4.5 out of 5 stars 316
• Story 4.5 out of 5 stars 317

In a ranch south of Texas, the man known as The Executioner dumps 500 body parts in metal barrels. In Brazil's biggest city, a mysterious prisoner orders hit men to gun down 41 police officers and prison guards in two days. In Southern Mexico a meth maker is venerated as a saint while enforcing Old Testament justice on his enemies. A new kind of criminal kingpin has arisen: part CEO, part terrorist, and part rock star, unleashing guerrilla attacks, strong-arming governments, and taking over much of the world's trade in narcotics, guns, and humans.

Good analysis and interpretation, but...

• By James H. McDonald on 10-30-19

We Don't Know Ourselves

• A Personal History of Modern Ireland

By: Fintan O'Toole

• Narrated by: Aidan Kelly
• Length: 22 hrs and 11 mins
• Overall 4.5 out of 5 stars 435
• Performance 5 out of 5 stars 368
• Story 5 out of 5 stars 364

In We Don't Know Ourselves , Fintan O'Toole weaves his own experiences into Irish social, cultural, and economic change, showing how Ireland, in just one lifetime, has gone from a reactionary "backwater" to an almost totally open society - perhaps the most astonishing national transformation in modern history. O'Toole narrates the once unthinkable collapse of the all-powerful Catholic Church, brought down by scandal and by the activism of ordinary Irish. He relates the horrific violence of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, which led most Irish to reject violent nationalism.

Relentlessly Negative

• By John on 06-02-22

Beyond the Messy Truth

• How We Came Apart, How We Come Together

By: Van Jones

• Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
• Overall 4.5 out of 5 stars 330
• Performance 4.5 out of 5 stars 291
• Story 4.5 out of 5 stars 292

In Beyond the Messy Truth , Jones offers a blueprint for transforming our collective anxiety into meaningful change. Tough on Donald Trump but showing respect and empathy for his supporters, Jones takes aim at the failures of both parties before and after Trump's victory. He urges both sides to abandon the politics of accusation and focus on real solutions. Calling us to a deeper patriotism, he shows us how to get down to the vital business of solving, together, some of our toughest problems.

I never hated anyone before

• By Joanna Bugajska on 11-17-17

Cop Under Fire

• Moving Beyond Hashtags of Race, Crime & Politics for a Better America
• By: David A. Clarke Jr., Sean Hannity, Nancy French - contributor
• Narrated by: David A. Clarke Jr.
• Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
• Overall 5 out of 5 stars 731
• Performance 5 out of 5 stars 659
• Story 5 out of 5 stars 662

America has become increasingly divided and polarized in recent years. With growing animosity toward law enforcement professionals, government corruption, disregard for the constitution, and racial tension thanks to the media and hate groups, there seems to be no easy answer in sight. But Sheriff David Clarke knows where we must begin. We must stop blaming others and take ownership of our families, communities, and country.

WOW! What a marvelous book.

• By Wayne on 07-02-17

By: David A. Clarke Jr. , and others

• How the Left's Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences Americans

By: Ben Shapiro

• Narrated by: Charles Constant
• Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
• Overall 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,643
• Performance 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,447
• Story 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,437

Ben Shapiro uncovers the simple strategy used by liberals and their friends in the media: bully the living hell out of conservatives. Play the race card, the class card, the sexism card. Use any and every means at your disposal to demonize your opposition - to shut them up. Then pretend that such bullying is justified because, after all, conservatives are the true bullies and need to be taught a lesson for their intolerance.

i wish shapiro narrated it

• By michelle on 03-25-17

• The True Story of China's Genocide of the Uyghurs

By: Nury Turkel

• Narrated by: Stewart Lang
• Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
• Overall 5 out of 5 stars 56
• Performance 5 out of 5 stars 49
• Story 5 out of 5 stars 49

A powerful memoir by Nury Turkel lays bare China’s repression of the Uyghur people. Turkel is cofounder and board chair of the Uyghur Human Rights Project and a commissioner for the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Powerfully Provocative

• By Amazon Customer on 06-01-22

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A Modern Jeremiah Sees National Decline Everywhere He Looks

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By Thomas B. Edsall

• Sept. 13, 2018

AMERICA The Farewell Tour By Chris Hedges 388 pp. Simon & Schuster. $27.

Chris Hedges is a bundle of contradictions and so too is his new book, “America: The Farewell Tour.”

As a New York Times reporter covering the Middle East, Hedges won praise from all quarters. The conservative Christopher Caldwell wrote in a 2002 review of an earlier Hedges book, “War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning,” that Hedges “has proved a correspondent of unusual bravery, stubbornness and independence. By going AWOL from the U.S. military’s press pool during the gulf war, he became one of the few eyewitnesses to American-Iraqi gunfights. He was among the rare big-time reporters to cover the Kosovo War as a war and not a morality play. His remorseless chronicling of the criminality and thuggery of our allies in the Kosovo Liberation Army is one of the high points of post-Vietnam War journalism.”

At the same time, Caldwell was on to a problem: Hedges’ “tone is often marked by an argument-foreclosing condescension.” “Is this moral reflection,” Caldwell asked, “or moralistic preening?”

In his current book, Hedges raises provocative questions. Has the destructive aspect of capitalism reached a tipping point? Are drug abuse, pornography and gambling emblematic of a free market run amok? Are the vacant shells of cities like Scranton, Dayton, Buffalo, Youngstown and Cleveland the inevitable consequences of an economy based on greed?

Hedges’ answer consists of a grim doubling down. “The American Empire is coming to an end,” he writes. “The death spiral appears unstoppable, meaning the United States as we know it will no longer exist within a decade or, at most, two.”

Traditional institutions of liberalism, including the Democratic Party, are, in Hedges’ view, hopelessly corrupted. “The ruling elites,” he says, “bought the allegiances of the two main political parties by purging … New Deal Democrats and corporate and imperial critics. They imposed obedience to corporate capitalism and globalization within academia and the press.”

Hedges’ indictment names names: “Self-identified liberals such as Bill and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama mouthed the words of liberal democratic values while making war on these values in the service of corporate power.” Even liberal nonprofit organizations like MoveOn.org and the Sierra Club “are feeble appendages to a corporatized Democratic Party.”

Hedges is a Harvard Divinity School graduate and an ordained Presbyterian minister. His ecclesiastical immersion shows. This passage is long but revealing of his mind-set:

“The violence and commodification of human beings for profit are the quintessential expressions of global capitalism. Our corporate masters are pimps. We are all being debased and degraded, rendered impoverished and powerless, to service the cruel and lascivious demands of the corporate elite. And when they tire of us, or when we are no longer of use, we are discarded. If the United States accepts prostitution as legal and permissible in a civil society, as Germany has done, we will take one more collective step toward the global plantation being built by the powerful. The fight against prostitution is the fight against a dehumanizing corporate capitalism that begins, but will not end, with the subjugation of impoverished girls and women.”

Insofar as Hedges holds out any hope, it is through local community organizing and groups like Black Lives Matter. For the most part, however, the prospects for the country are bleak: “This moment in history marks the end of a long, sad tale of greed and murder by the white races. It is inevitable that for the final show we vomited up a figure like Trump.”

Both righteous and self-righteous, Hedges is addicted to fire and brimstone. A Jeremiah preaching eternal damnation, he is adding to the already crowded shelf of American narratives of decline. His call springs not only from Jonathan Edwards and Cotton Mather but also from spoiled preachers like Jimmy Swaggart and James Bakker, and now from Donald Trump. It’s a call that has echoed down through the ages: “Drain the Swamp.”

Thomas B. Edsall covered national politics for The Washington Post for 25 years and since 2011 has been a contributing Op-Ed writer for The Times.

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Book Review: “America: The Farewell Tour” — Has Our Ship Already Sailed?

America: The Farewell Tour and American Pyschosis are well worth taking to heart — both to provide provocative perspective on what is happening and to spur us into action.

America: The Farewell Tour by Chris Hedges, Simon and Shuster, 311 pages, $18.56.

American Psychosis , a documentary written by Chris Hedges. Directed by Amanda Zakem. Available on Vimeo, etc.

Despite the feverish claims of Fox News and the Republican Party, America has not had much of a left wing in politics until recently. Although one might have gotten the impression from Republicans that the Democratic Party in 2016 was full of socialist fanatics headed by extremist Nancy Pelosi, the truth is since the presidency of Bill Clinton the Democratic Party has been centrist, while the Republicans have become increasingly right-wing. Both of these conditions powered the rise of Donald Trump, who was able to appeal to both Republicans and the many disaffected Democrats left behind by neoliberals like Bill and Hillary.

Lately though, a number of left-wing voices have been speaking up and they are getting a hearing. Bernie Sanders ran on a platform that included healthcare for all and free higher education. Newly elected congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez talks openly about being a democratic socialist. Sander’s attacks on the 1%  calls for a redistribution of wealth; Ocasio-Cortez champions a universal income. Since Trump’s election, a wide-ranging group calling themselves the Resistance has sprung into existence and found credence with a number of respected journalists and intellectuals, including: Sarah Kendzior, Amy Siskind, Jeffrey St. Clair, Paul Street, Zephyr Teachout, Tom Engelhardt, Rebecca Solnit, Chauncy DeVega, and Chris Hedges, to name a few. According to one survey, one third of Millennials have a positive view of socialism, a term that is often turned into a smear by the right wing to take down political candidates. The right finds it electorally useful to conflate socialism and communism. One of the many ways in which it plays on the sad ignorance of the American public to strong-arm its way forward.

Chris Hedges is a former writer for the New York Times and an eclectic, erudite thinker who readily backs up his views via convincing research from literature, television and film. In America: The Farewell Tour , he considers the fall of the American Empire, focusing on a number of problems that, when taken together, paint a bleak picture of our current era. In fact, Hedges sees denial everywhere — the sky falling around us but we carry on with our day-to-day lives entranced by distractions and entertainment. He has chapters that zero in on our disappearing manufacturing sector, our crumbling infrastructure, our drug problem, our loss of unions due to the corporate takeover of the economy and the government, our decadent surrender to porn and sadism, the rise of hate groups and hate crime, our national addiction to gambling, our oppressive, racist prison system, and the encroachment of a militarized surveillance state. Hedges does what most of our mainstream (profit-driven and non-profit) media fails to do: move from the specific to the general so we can take in the big picture. And it doesn’t look good.

He points to the insatiable greed among what he refers to as “the elite rich,” not the 1% that Bernie refers to, but the .01% that Piketty highlights. People like Sheldon Adelson and the Koch brothers, the representatives of our new corrupt Gilded Age. According to Hedges, this mega-rich group does not have our best interests at heart: they are all in for privatizing the United States. They are behind efforts to finance suppressing the vote to keep the riffraff out, breaking up unions, encouraging charter schools, along with (of course) cutting taxes and entitlements. They champion Ayn Rand — survival of the uber-fittest. They are convinced that, because they worked hard for their money, as did those who came before them, they deserve to be in control, in perpetuity. The tragic flaw with this immoral approach is that if people don’t make their way, it is their fault.

American Psychosis , a fifteen-minute documentary written by Hedges, comes at the same critical issues from a slightly different angle. The idea here is that there is a calculated disconnect between the world that we’re presented with on television and the world we live in: we no longer know the difference between what is real and what is not. Television is filled with happy talk and capitalist propaganda that assures us that, if we have the money, we can buy products (cars, vacations, drugs) that will ensure our happiness. Meanwhile, people compete against each other in ‘Reality TV’ shows such as Survivor. These programs are designed to teach us that society is made up of two categories: the weak, who are humiliated losers, and cutthroat egomaniacs, who are the winners. This cartoon version of life sells consumer goods, but it is terrible for democracy.

What does Hedges want? He is a socialist who is “concerned with what is right and just.” He believes that “we must stand with all of the oppressed … this is a global fight against tyranny.” He calls for full employment, single payer healthcare, inexpensive mass transportation, a minimum wage of $15 an hour and/or a universal income of $500 per week. He wants to repeal the Patriot Act and dismantle mass incarceration, invest in renewable energy, and demilitarize the police. He thinks we should fight for free education; and he wants to bring our troops home. He demands that as Sarah Palin proclaimed to be her mission, “to take our country back.” Of course, she had a very different country in mind.

In American Psychosis , Hedges points to Iraq as the political catalyst that sent us off track because it encouraged the implementation of the surveillance state, the end of habeas corpus, and the advent of the use of torture by the Bush Administration. But the origin of our problems can also be traced to the ’60s — the assassinations of the Kennedys and MLK generated a national case of PTSD. Iraq and all our subsequent wars can be seen as attempts to finally win the Vietnam War, to be winners, not losers. In any case, we have obviously gone off the rails, from our foreign wars and the opioid crisis to hate crimes and the rising suicide rate among white males — culminating in the election of Donald Trump. If he is our ‘insane clown president’ (as journalist Matt Taibbi calls him), then we are his dutifully crazy audience. America: The Farewell Tour and American Pyschosis are well worth taking to heart — both to provide some provocative perspective on what is happening and to spur us into action.

Ed Meek is the author of Spy Pond and What We Love . A collection of his short stories, Luck , came out in May. WBUR’s Cognoscenti featured his poems during poetry month this year.

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“America: The Farewell Tour” by Chris Hedges: a review

Posted on Mar 12, 2019

Reviewed by Robert R. Thomas

An unsettling childhood memory is that things were not as they seemed, and nobody was talking about it. My brother Alan succinctly described our childhood milieu as a “culture of silence.” While reading America: The Farewell Tour , by Chris Hedges, that childhood culture of silence revisited me.

The book’s chapter s—DECAY, HEROIN, WORK, SADISM, HATE, GAMBLING and FREEDOM—are lucid reveals about the fall of empire, historically and currently. The book’s  focus is a deep dive into pathologies of self-annihilation, both individually and culturally.

Drawing on sociologist Emile Durkheim’s 1897 classic treatise, On Suicide , which holds that what drives a person to kill is a yearning for self-extinction, Hedges references the term, “anomie,” which Durkheim  defines as “rulelessness,” a society that no longer has rules, or at least the rules are no longer obeyed. Once anomie grips a society, a series of self-annihilating pathologies arise. Anomie runs rampant through America, as Hedges delineates in America: The Farewell Tour .

DECAY plunges the reader into the heart of economic darkness in empire’s failures through the lens of a deindustrialized American city, Scranton, Pennsylvania. After the city’s many attempts to keep afloat financially, nothing was left to steal or hock. “But after the last city assets are sold, what is next?” asks Hedges. “No one has an answer.” What once was “had been replaced,” reports Hedges, “in Scranton and across America by desperation, poverty, drift, a loss of identity, and a deep and crippling despair.”

“Marx was keenly aware of capitalism’s ability to innovate and adapt,” writes Hedges. “But he also knew that capitalist expansion was not eternally sustainable. And as we witness the denouement of capitalism, Karl Marx is vindicated as the system’s most prescient critic.” Hedges notes that Marx’s warning about the last stages of capitalism at its most predatory is an economy built on austerity and the scaffolding of debt expansion, what Marx called “fictitious money.”

“There comes a moment, Marx knew,” writes Hedges, “when there would be no new markets available and no new pools of people who could take on more debt. This is what happened with the subprime mortgage crisis. Once the banks could not conjure up new subprime borrowers, the scheme fell apart and the system crashed.”

Positing Marx’s definition of work as “wage slavery,” WORK opens with a quote from Durkheim’s On Suicide :

“When life is not worth living, everything becomes a pretext for ridding ourselves of it…There is a collective mood, as there is an individual mood, that inclines nations to sadness…For individuals are too closely involved in the life of society for it to be sick without their being affected. Its suffering inevitably becomes theirs.”

For Hedges, “Corporate capitalism has made war on the communal and the sacred, on those forces that allow us to connect and transcend our temporal condition to bond with others. These bonds will be reestablished or we will slip further into a world where death is more attractive than life.”

SADISM, writes Hedges, “has become an accepted part of mass culture. Fifty Shades of Gray , like the movie American Sniper , expresses the ethos of a predatory world where the weak and the vulnerable are objects to exploit. The powerful are narcissistic and violent demigods for whom pleasure comes at the expense of another.”

It is also a windfall for corporate capitalism’s investors.

“When you fight porn, you fight capitalism,” Professor Gail Dines, author of Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality , tells Hedges. “The venture capitalists, the banks, the credit card companies are all in this feeding chain. This is why you never see anti-porn stories. The media is implicated. It is financially in bed with these companies.”

Hedges sums up their conversation: “The violence and commodification of human beings for profit are the quintessential expressions of global capitalism. Our corporate masters are pimps.”

GAMBLING depicts a pathology in which predators abound in an industry that preys on the despair of people who are in financial distress, people who have a difficult time coping with life’s challenges. Casino capitalism, presented as economic development, has spread across the land. Gambling offers both a possible solution to financial difficulties and a drug to anesthetize the loser from the loser world around him.

With his withering emphasis on human greed, power, and cruelty, Hedges is often portrayed as Mr. Bad News. His latest investigation into pathologies of scale will certainly do nothing to diminish that reputation as he spotlights the detritus and decay delusional thinking creates. Furthermore, he doubles down on the scariest part of delusional thinking. “The most important existential issues that face us are not even articulated. And that is very dangerous.”

FREEDOM, the final chapter in America: The Farewell Tour , is a cri de cœur. Even though it is Mr. Bad News delivering the sermon, his choir of voices throughout the chapter confirms his humanitarian message with their stories of faith, hope and love.

Sybil and Josh Medlin, who come out of the Catholic Worker Movement, own and operate Burdock House in Anderson, Indiana, which Josh describes as “a house of hospitality” and “an alternative model to a culture that focuses on accumulating as much money as possible and on an economic structure based on competition and taking advantage of others.” Hedges deftly weaves into their narrative fabric Walker Percy’s classic American dystopian novel from 1971, Love in the Ruins . He accentuates the weave with literary and political commentary. As a reader and writer, I found this section of narrative journalism particular ly rich.

Adding to the weave are stories of a community organizer in Brooklyn, a trip to Standing Rock, militarized police forces, a sociologist specializing in nonviolent social change, T-Dubb-O and Rika Tyler, cofounders of Hands Up United, the privatized prison industry in carceral state and the plethora of guns and violence. Throughout their stories resistance rears its diverse head.

“Resistance,” Hedges writes, “is not, fundamentally, political. It is cultural and spiritual. It is about finding meaning and expression in the transcendent and the incongruities of life….Art celebrates the freedom and dignity of those who defy malignant evil. Victory is not inevitable, or at least not victory as defined by the powerful. Yet in every act of rebellion we are free.”

A culture of silence is a most dangerous game under Hedges’s spotlight because it is a gathering darkness of delusional, self-annihilating thinking. He notes that theologian Paul Tillich and philosopher Søren Kierkegaard regard “sin” as an estrangement from the forces that give us ultimate meaning and purpose in life.

“As long as we fold inward and embrace a hyper-individualism that is defined by selfishness and narcissism,” writes Hedges, “we will never overcome this estrangement. We will be separated from ourselves, from others and from the sacred.”

A graduate of Harvard Divinity School and an ordained Presbyterian minister as well as a Pulitzer Prize-winning former journalist for The New York Times who covered the horror of wars around the world for nearly twenty years, Hedges is a seasoned guide to existential, moral, and intellectual issues.

The final paragraph of FREEDOM’s cry and the conclusion to America: The Farewell Tour  resolves the author’s quest to debunk the delusions of human supremacy and promote the righteousness of human dignity:

“Resistance is not only about battling the forces of darkness. It is about becoming a complete human being. It is about overcoming estrangement. It is about our neighbor. It is about honoring the sacred. It is about dignity. It is about sacrifice. It is about courage. It is about freedom. It is about the capacity to love. Resistance must become our vocation.”

Reviewer Robert Thomas

In the end, hope is born out of the tragic. In interviews and talks, Hedges often quotes from Vassily Grossman’s book, Life and Fate : “It’s not a battle between good and evil; it’s a battle between a great evil trying to crush human kindness. But if human kindness has not been crushed, even now, then evil will never win.”

Faith, for Hedges, is a truth he derived from Rev. Daniel Berrigan: the belief that the good draws to itself the good.

Mr. Bad News, it turns out, is deeply in love with humanity and what was once called reality. His message is not FEAR; it is WAKE UP.

EVM book reviewer and board member Robert R. Thomas can be reached at [email protected].

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America: The Farewell Tour

Trade Paperback

LIST PRICE $20.00

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Table of Contents

• Rave and Reviews

About The Book

About the author.

Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent and bureau chief in the Middle East and the Balkans for fifteen years for  The New York Times.  He previously worked overseas for  The Dallas Morning News ,  The Christian Science Monitor , and NPR. He is host of the Emmy Award­–nominated RT America show  On Contact.  Hedges, who holds a Master of Divinity from Harvard University, is the author of numerous books, and was a National Book Critics Circle finalist for  War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning . He has taught at Columbia University, New York University, Princeton University, and the University of Toronto. He has taught college credit courses through Rutgers University in the New Jersey prison system since 2013.

Product Details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (August 27, 2019)
• Length: 400 pages
• ISBN13: 9781501152689

Raves and Reviews

“Searing portraits . . . of individuals victimized in six arenas that [Hedges] explores in detail: drug addiction, pornography, gambling, the criminal justice system, extremist groups and the search for meaningful, well-paid work. He takes the reader inside these issues in ways that are often telling and memorable.”

– Thomas Carothers, The Washington Post

“Chris Hedges wants us to face realities. Our society is unraveling, institutionally and structurally, and is being replaced by the corporate state of merging big business and government. Commercialism overwhelms civic values, impoverishes its subjects, and reaches into childhoods bypassing parental authority. Poverty, addiction, gambling, and hopelessness spread like epidemics. Only we the people can reverse the disintegration of democracy by plutocracy. In America: The Farewell Tour, Chris Hedges depicts the horrifying truths on the ground from which resistance rises to jolt us into an active, realizable culture of reconstruction.”

– Ralph Nader

"An exceedingly dark, passionate, and provocative book, certain to arouse controversy but offering a point of view that needs to be heard."

“Chris Hedges is perhaps today’s most important public intellectual, and America: the Farewell Tour is perhaps his most important book. If we as a society are able to move past our current ‘sickness unto death,’ as Kierkegaard put it, it will be in great measure thanks to books like this one.”

– Derrick Jensen, author of A Language Older Than Words and The Culture of Make Believe

“Hedges writes a requiem for the American dream. . . . [A] fiery sermon that weighs the nation and finds it wanting.”

– Kirkus Reviews

“Hedges’s latest critique of late-stage capitalist America is forceful and direct."

– Publishers Weekly

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Aerosmith 2024 Farewell Tour: Here's Where to Buy Tickets Online

All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

Aerosmith is ready to come together with fans for the rescheduled dates of their Peace Out farewell tour. The band originally had to cancel tour dates when Steven Tyler announced a vocal chord injury , but starting Sept. 2024 until Feb. 2025, the rockstars will head back on the road and travel to cities across North America. Select dates will also include special guests like The Black Crowes and Teddy Swims.

Tickets initially went on sale through Ticketmaster and you may still be able to buy tickets from the official distributer. In case you can't find the seats or the view you want though, there are cheap ticket sites available including resale options like StubHub , Vivid Seats , Seat Geek and Ticketsmarter .

If you want to hear hits like "Walk This Way," "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing," "Dream On" and "Sweet Emotion," keep reading to learn more about where to buy Aerosmith tickets.

Is This Aerosmith's Last Tour?

The Peace Out Farewell tour is slated to be the last tour by Aerosmith as of now. Originally, the tour was slated to begin Sept. 3, 2023, and go on for more than 40 concerts, but after Tyler sustained an injury to his vocal chords during the third show in, the band had to postpone their tour dates.

How to Get Aerosmith Tickets Online

Ticketmaster still has tickets available for their 2024 tour, which you can buy starting at $57. If your desired section or number of tickets wanted aren't available, you can check out resale ticket sellers for more options below

StubHub is offering Aerosmith tickets for as low as $58 (at the time of this writing). You can choose tickets based on the number you need, price and section of the venue. Each ticket purchase also comes with a FanProtect Guarantee that ensures you receive valid tickets in time for the event. If an issue occurs with your order, you'll get comparable, better tickets, or your money back.

Vivid Seats

Another affordable option is Vivid Seats , which offers Aerosmith concert tickets from $53 . To help you find the best options, the site allows you to sort tickets by price or seating area in the arena. And if you're looking for additional savings, you can get $20 off orders of $200+ when you use the code BB2024 at checkout. Students can score 10% off orders of $25+ when you verify your student status here . Purchases are also protected through Vivid Seats' 100% Buyer Guarantee, which you can learn more about here .

Seat Geek is providing tickets starting at $63 with deals rated on a scale of 1-10 to make sure you score the best discount. Tickets that are labeled a 10 are considered the best deal, and one-rated tickets are the worst. You can customize your options by including fees with ticket prices and even sign up to get notified if ticket prices drop. A bonus offer: use code BILLBOARD10 to save $10 off your ticket purchases of $250+ (offer valid on first purchases only) at SeatGeek.com .

TicketSmarter

You can score Aerosmith tour tickets for as low as $50.92 through TicketSmarter . You can choose tickets based on venue level as well as cost. Plus, your purchase is covered by the site's 100% Guarantee , which means you'll receive a refund if your event is canceled and not rescheduled, tickets weren't valid or delivered in time for the event.

Aerosmith Peace Out Farewell Tour Dates

Below are the remaining Aerosmith tour dates to help you plan out where you see the band live.

• Sept. 20: PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pa.
• Sept. 23: Wells Fargo Center in Pennsylvania, Pa.
• Sept. 26: KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Ky.
• Sept. 29: Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, Ohio
• Oct. 2: Spectrum Center in Charlotte. N.C.
• Oct. 5: Thompson Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tenn.
• Oct. 8: Capitol One Arena in Washington D.C.
• Oct. 11: State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Ga.
• Oct. 14: Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Mo.
• Oct. 17: Heritage Bank Center in Cincinatti, Ohio
• Oct. 20: Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn.
• Oct. 31: Footprint Center in Phoenix, Ariz.
• Nov. 3: Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas
• Nov. 6: Moody Center in Austin, Texas
• Nov. 9: American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas
• Nov. 12: Bok Center in Tulsa, Okla.
• Nov. 15: Chi Health Center in Omaha, Neb.
• Nov. 18: Ball Arena in Denver, Colo.
• Nov. 21: Moda Center in Portland, Ore.
• Nov. 24: Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Wash.
• Nov. 27: Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah
• Nov. 30: Chase Center in San Fransisco, Calif.
• Dec. 4: Sap Center in San Jose, Calif.
• Dec. 7: The Kia Forum in Los Angeles, Calif.
• Dec. 28: Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.
• Dec. 31: TD Garden in Boston, Mass.
• Jan. 4: Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Mich.
• Jan. 7: Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario
• Jan. 10: Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec
• Jan. 13: Shottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio
• Jan. 16: Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Ind.
• Jan. 19: United Center in Chicago, Ill.
• Jan. 22: Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minn.
• Jan. 25: T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo.
• Feb. 11: Kia Center in Orlando, Fla.
• Feb. 14: Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla.
• Feb. 17: Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Fla.
• Feb. 20: PNC Arena in Raleigh, N.C.
• Feb. 23: Madison Square Garden in New York City, N.Y.
• Feb. 26: Keybank Center in Buffalo, N.Y.

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Frankie Beverly & Maze farewell tour features legends of R&B and soul

• By Eddy "Precise" Lamarre
• Apr 28, 2024

On the evening of April 27, 2024, the United Center in Chicago witnessed an unforgettable farewell performance by the legendary Frankie Beverly, who was joined by iconic openers El DeBarge and Chaka Khan. The I Wanna Thank You farewell tour marked the conclusion of Beverly’s illustrious career and a celebration of decades of influential music.

The night started with El DeBarge, who effortlessly transported the audience back to the heyday of falsetto with his timeless charm and masterful vocal control. Known for his piercing falsetto that dominated the airwaves during the peak of his career, DeBarge proved he still holds the throne in the realm of high-pitched soulful melodies. His performance was a poignant reminder of why his music has endured, resonating with both longtime fans and new listeners.

Following DeBarge, Chaka Khan took the stage, amplifying the energy to remarkable heights. With a career spanning over 50 years, Khan’s performance was spectacular. Her voice, powerful and seemingly effortless, filled the arena, hitting every note with immaculate precision. Khan began her set with a short video montage of her hits, which served both as a nostalgic recap and a vibrant showcase of her dynamic range. Opting to perform a selection of B-sides, Khan celebrated her greatest hits and also illuminated her extensive catalog, highlighting her versatility and ongoing relevance in the music industry.

The climax of the evening was Frankie Beverly’s performance with Maze. Despite recent vocal complications, Beverly’s presence was a radiant display of resilience and joy. His songs, particularly classics like “We Are One,” “Golden Time of Day,” and “Happy Feelings,” are anthems of unity and happiness. As he performed, the audience was invited not just to listen but to participate, singing along and contributing to an atmosphere filled with love and collective joy. It was a powerful reminder of how his music has served as a soundtrack to many lives, fostering a sense of community and positivity.

The emotional resonance of the concert was further amplified when Mayor Johnson declared April 27 as “Frankie Beverly & Maze Day,” a fitting tribute to Beverly’s impact on the music scene and the cultural life of Chicago. This gesture from the city underscored the deep appreciation for Beverly’s contributions and his lasting legacy.

The concert was not only a farewell tour but also a master class in musical longevity and transformation. Each artist demonstrated adaptability and relevance, traits that have enabled them to resonate across different eras and continue to captivate audiences worldwide. The night was a poignant reflection on the passage of time, the enduring power of music, and the unbreakable bonds it creates.

The concert was a spectacular showcase of talent, resilience, and artistic brilliance. El DeBarge reminded us of the enchanting power of falsetto, Chaka Khan demonstrated the sheer force of her vocal prowess, and Frankie Beverly, alongside Maze, enveloped all in attendance in an aura of positivity and unity. This farewell was not just a goodbye but a celebration of timeless music that will continue to inspire and uplift for generations to come.

Take a look at a few photos from the tour below.

7 Responses

Great last tour

Beautifully written article. I was there to experience it and it was amazing! All three artists were fantastic in their own right!

Nicely and accurately written. Expressed exactly what I witnessed and felt.

I went to the farewell tour concert at the United Center with my girlfriend’s and I we had a blast. Frankie Beverly & Maze, Shaka Khan, & El Debarge had the rocking & singing to there favorite song. Everyone was dressed to impress in their white outfits from head to toe. After the concert was over no one wanted to leave.

Promoters, don’t forget Central Illinois, Bloomington/Normal, IL. Illinois State University, Champaign Il, University of Illinois, Peoria IL, Peoria Civic Center,. Springfield,IL, Springfield Civic Center.

Sorry, I missed this Farewell!

Will never forget what you done for me. I can remember the first time I saw you, Ashford and Simpson in Maryville Indiana. I fell deeply in love with your music. I Just want to thank you for your time with each and every one of you’ll. Gregory Jones

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• Chaka Khan , Chicago music scene , el debarge , farewell tour , frankie beverly , live concert review , music legacy , R&B legends , soul music , United Center

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Howard Jones, ABC and Haircut 100 Team Up for New Wave Extravaganza North American Tour

By Jem Aswad

Executive Editor, Music

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A new wave one-stop shop will tour North America this summer when Howard Jones and ABC will be hitting stages across North America with special guest Haircut 100. The full itinerary appears below.

“I’m very excited to be hitting the road with my friends ABC and Haircut 100,” Jones enthused. “Our audiences can look forward to some seriously top tunes night after night!  Bring your celebratory selves to the party.” 

Popular on Variety

Of course, the evening will play out like an evening filled with hits from the early days of MTV, when the so-called “Second British Invasion” dominated the channel. Jones’ hits “New Song” and “What Is Love,” and “Things Can Only Get Better” probably segued into or out of ABC’s “Look of Love,” “Poison Arrow” and “Be Near Me” and Haircut 100’s “Love Plus One” and “Fantastic Day.”

All three acts have gone on to other successes, but this tour brings together the songs and sounds that first brought them to fame.

14  Redmond, WA         Marymoor Live

17  Sandy City, UT  Sandy Amphitheater

18  Las Vegas, NV  The Theater At Virgin Hotels

20  Inglewood, CA        YouTube Theater

21  Del Mar, CA      The Sound

24  Oklahoma City, OK The Zoo Amphitheatre

28  Columbus, OH  TempleLive At Columbus Athenaeum

29  Windsor, ON           Caesars Windsor – The Colosseum

30  Niagara Falls, ON    Fallsview Casino Resort

 4   Montclair, NJ           The Wellmont

 5   Port Chester, NY     The Capitol Theatre

 6   Huntington, NY The Paramount

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America: the farewell tour audible audiobook – unabridged.

A profound and provocative examination of America in crisis, where unemployment, deindustrialization, and a bitter hopelessness and malaise have resulted in an epidemic of diseases of despair - drug abuse, gambling, suicide, magical thinking, xenophobia, and a culture of sadism and hate.

America, says Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Chris Hedges, is convulsed by an array of pathologies that have arisen out of profound hopelessness, a bitter despair and a civil society that has ceased to function. The opioid crisis, the retreat into gambling to cope with economic distress, the pornification of culture, the rise of magical thinking, the celebration of sadism, hate, and plagues of suicides are the physical manifestations of a society that is being ravaged by corporate pillage and a failed democracy. As our society unravels, we also face global upheaval caused by catastrophic climate change. All these ills presage a frightening reconfiguration of the nation and the planet.

Donald Trump rode this disenchantment to power. In America: The Farewell Tour , Hedges argues that neither political party, now captured by corporate power, addresses the systemic problem. Until our corporate coup d’état is reversed these diseases will grow and ravage the country. A poignant cry reported from communities across the country, America: The Farewell Tour seeks to jolt us out of our complacency while there is still time.

• Listening Length 14 hours and 17 minutes
• Author Chris Hedges
• Narrator Fred Sanders
• Audible release date August 21, 2018
• Language English
• Publisher Simon & Schuster Audio
• ASIN B07CP4CCW8
• Version Unabridged
• Program Type Audiobook
• See all details

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