america the farewell tour

• Sign up and get a free ebook!
• Don't miss our $0.99 ebook deals!

America: The Farewell Tour

• Unabridged Audio Download

Trade Paperback

LIST PRICE $20.00

Free shipping when you spend $40. Terms apply.

Buy from Other Retailers

• Amazon logo
• Bookshop logo

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

Resources and Downloads

High resolution images.

• Book Cover Image (jpg): America: The Farewell Tour Trade Paperback 9781501152689

Get a FREE ebook by joining our mailing list today!

Plus, receive recommendations and exclusive offers on all of your favorite books and authors from Simon & Schuster.

More books from this author: Chris Hedges

You may also like: Thriller and Mystery Staff Picks

More to Explore

Limited Time eBook Deals

Check out this month's discounted reads.

Our Summer Reading Recommendations

Red-hot romances, poolside fiction, and blockbuster picks, oh my! Start reading the hottest books of the summer.

This Month's New Releases

From heart-pounding thrillers to poignant memoirs and everything in between, check out what's new this month.

Tell us what you like and we'll recommend books you'll love.

Advertisement

Supported by

A Modern Jeremiah Sees National Decline Everywhere He Looks

• Share full article

• Apple Books
• Barnes and Noble
• Books-A-Million

When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.

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.

Explore More in Books

Want to know about the best books to read and the latest news start here..

No Tours or TikTok:  Emily Henry, the author of “Funny Story,” churned out five consecutive No. 1 best-sellers without leaving her comfort zone .

Tomi Adeyemi Interview:  With her new book, “Children of Anguish and Anarchy,” Adeyemi is wrapping up her best-selling Legacy of Orïsha series. The journey hasn’t been easy .

Conquering the Thriller Genre:  After getting her start by self-publishing, a Boston physician is now the fastest selling thriller writer in the United States .

Bookstores With a Mission:  The pandemic fueled a boom in social justice movements and indie bookstores. The two come together in these worker-owned shops .

The Book Review Podcast:  Each week, top authors and critics talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .

Buy new: .savingPriceOverride { color:#CC0C39!important; font-weight: 300!important; } .reinventMobileHeaderPrice { font-weight: 400; } #apex_offerDisplay_mobile_feature_div .reinventPriceSavingsPercentageMargin, #apex_offerDisplay_mobile_feature_div .reinventPricePriceToPayMargin { margin-right: 4px; } -28% $25.00 $ 25 . 00 FREE delivery Monday, July 8 on your first order Ships from: Amazon Sold by: HOMEWOOD SHOP

Save with used - very good .savingpriceoverride { color:#cc0c39important; font-weight: 300important; } .reinventmobileheaderprice { font-weight: 400; } #apex_offerdisplay_mobile_feature_div .reinventpricesavingspercentagemargin, #apex_offerdisplay_mobile_feature_div .reinventpricepricetopaymargin { margin-right: 4px; } $15.50 $ 15 . 50 free delivery monday, july 8 on your first order ships from: amazon sold by: yatans.

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer – no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera, scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

Image Unavailable

• To view this video, download Flash Player

Follow the author

America, The Farewell Tour Hardcover – Aug. 21 2018

Purchase options and add-ons.

• 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
• See all details

Frequently bought together

Popular titles by this author

Product description

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
• #467 in Sociology of Class
• #576 in United States 21st Century History (Books)
• #577 in 21st Century U.S. History

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.

Customer reviews

• Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from Canada

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

Top reviews from other countries

• Amazon and Our Planet
• Modern Slavery Statement
• Investor Relations
• Press Releases
• Amazon Science
• Sell on Amazon
• Supply to Amazon
• Become an Affiliate
• Protect & Build Your Brand
• Sell on Amazon Handmade
• Advertise Your Products
• Independently Publish with Us
• Host an Amazon Hub
• Amazon.ca Rewards Mastercard
• Shop with Points
• Reload Your Balance
• Amazon Currency Converter
• Amazon Cash
• Shipping Rates & Policies
• Amazon Prime
• Returns Are Easy
• Manage your Content and Devices
• Recalls and Product Safety Alerts
• Customer Service
• Conditions of Use
• Privacy Notice
• Interest-Based Ads
• Amazon.com.ca ULC | 40 King Street W 47th Floor, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5H 3Y2 |1-877-586-3230

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

More books like this, more books by chris hedges, customers also bought.

• Follow us on Twitter
• Follow us on Facebook
• Subscribe To Rss Feed

“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].

Share this:

Author: East Village Magazine

A Non-profit, Community News Magazine Since 1976

Help The East Village Magazine with your kind donation

The Latest Edition of East Village Magazine Is Available For Download Here (pdf)

The EVM Readership Survey

Help shape the future of The East Village Magazine and take our readership survey

FACES of Flint

“FACES of Flint: a message from the anvil of American democracy” presented by The East Village Magazine, is available now

Number of Lead Water Service Lines:

Pipes Explored : 27,133 Pipes Replaced : 10,059 Copper Lines Installed : 17,074

Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to The East Village Magazine and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Email Address

• Book review
• Coronavirus
• First Amendment
• News Briefs
• Print Edition
• Special Events
• Village Life
• July 2024  (1)
• June 2024  (11)
• May 2024  (15)
• April 2024  (17)
• March 2024  (17)
• February 2024  (17)
• January 2024  (8)
• December 2023  (5)
• November 2023  (4)
• October 2023  (7)
• September 2023  (7)
• August 2023  (8)
• July 2023  (7)
• June 2023  (16)
• May 2023  (14)
• April 2023  (9)
• March 2023  (10)
• February 2023  (15)
• January 2023  (10)
• December 2022  (12)
• November 2022  (10)
• October 2022  (18)
• September 2022  (6)
• August 2022  (15)
• July 2022  (9)
• June 2022  (13)
• May 2022  (14)
• April 2022  (11)
• March 2022  (16)
• February 2022  (13)
• January 2022  (12)
• December 2021  (13)
• November 2021  (16)
• October 2021  (15)
• September 2021  (12)
• August 2021  (18)
• July 2021  (15)
• June 2021  (13)
• May 2021  (18)
• April 2021  (20)
• March 2021  (16)
• February 2021  (18)
• January 2021  (20)
• December 2020  (19)
• November 2020  (9)
• October 2020  (30)
• September 2020  (22)
• August 2020  (21)
• July 2020  (28)
• June 2020  (34)
• May 2020  (37)
• April 2020  (45)
• March 2020  (63)
• February 2020  (27)
• January 2020  (29)
• December 2019  (28)
• November 2019  (34)
• October 2019  (23)
• September 2019  (25)
• August 2019  (27)
• July 2019  (23)
• June 2019  (24)
• May 2019  (14)
• April 2019  (24)
• March 2019  (32)
• February 2019  (17)
• January 2019  (34)
• December 2018  (28)
• November 2018  (31)
• October 2018  (31)
• September 2018  (20)
• August 2018  (15)
• July 2018  (28)
• June 2018  (21)
• May 2018  (17)
• April 2018  (21)
• March 2018  (22)
• February 2018  (14)
• January 2018  (11)
• December 2017  (11)
• November 2017  (15)
• October 2017  (22)
• September 2017  (11)
• August 2017  (22)
• July 2017  (12)
• June 2017  (14)
• May 2017  (19)
• April 2017  (12)
• March 2017  (13)
• February 2017  (20)
• January 2017  (12)
• December 2016  (19)
• November 2016  (14)
• October 2016  (12)
• September 2016  (17)
• August 2016  (10)
• July 2016  (17)
• June 2016  (12)
• May 2016  (7)
• April 2016  (11)
• March 2016  (10)
• February 2016  (6)
• January 2016  (14)
• December 2015  (6)
• November 2015  (8)

You must be logged in to post a comment.

• Skip to main content
• Skip to secondary menu
• Skip to footer

Prole Academy

A Book Isn't Dangerous Until You Read It.

AMERICA: THE FAREWELL TOUR – Chris Hedges

• Reading Time: 5 Minutes
• Word Count: 1057 Words

This book is a stone-cold bummer; I suppose the collapse of societies always is.  That’s the premise underlining Chris Hedges’ journey here. He travels through abandoned towns, open-air drug markets, run-down casinos. He even ventures into the minds of white nationalist extremists. In Hedges’ view, America is likely entering its death spiral.  Each chapter seems to function as a signpost on the way to that destination. The author wants to explore how we got there and what might rise from its remains, for good or ill.

America: The Farewell Tour is compelling and heartbreaking.  It’s also incredibly dense in its references to other writers and ideas. Hedges is incredibly well-read and has an active mind. He’s clearly leaving it all out on the field here by trying to give you the full scope of what he’s thinking and reading.  I noted more authors to read later than I have since A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn.  A few of the people who made the cut:

• Alfred W. McCoy – In the Shadows of the American Century, on the demise of the American empire;
• Sheldon Wolin – Democracy, Inc. – on whether any institutions in America can still be rightfully called democratic;
• Adam Smith – The Wealth of Nations – the first great theorist of capitalism,
• Pankaj Mishra – author of The Age of Anger: A History of the Present;
• Emile Durkheim – The Division of Labor in Society – one of the earliest sociologists;
• James Howard Kunstler – World Made By Hand – a novelist writing about collapse;

These are joined by quotes and comments from classic political theorists and writers like Hannah Arendt, Voltaire, and socialists Rosa Luxemburg and Antonio Gramsci .   You need more than a quick Google lookup to get a sense of what Hedges is getting at when he cites these people.  Hedges is taking part in a greater conversation, and I want to understand where I fit in it.

First stop for Hedges on his farewell tour: an abandoned lace factory in Scranton, PA.  This small city is well-known if you’re from Pennsylvania. It’s a once-bustling place whose better days are long, long behind it.  It was the butt of jokes on a national level as the setting for the U.S. version of the TV show The Office. Now, it’s a classic case of crumbling infrastructure, shrinking prospects, and tightening budgets. It’s emblematic of the American Rust Belt.  Once, it was a proud union stronghold staffing factories and mines. Now, Scranton’s lacking much to offer besides healthcare, service jobs, and warehousing.  Hedges uses it as a case study in what gutting social welfare programs, privatization and deregulation , and capitalism itself will lead to.  The author quotes Marx, who said capitalism has within it the “seeds of its own destruction” and is premised on the need for infinite growth.  When it’s able to expand no longer, it will consume the infrastructure, resources and people that once sustained it.  You’ll end up with workers unable to buy the products they create. Soon companies will abandon those workers for even cheaper workers elsewhere. The march of automation might also make them obsolete. Cities caught in this cycle gut programs, sell assets, and stop responding to their citizens’ needs. They become the dwelling places of ghosts.

Repeat this trend across the country, at every level, and you begin to see the picture Hedges is painting.  Collapse is the endgame. Political division, lost opportunities, societal decay, climate destruction are worsening. In our future, open violent conflict may manage to destroy our ways of life. It could even transform the map of the United States altogether, erasing its name. In its place? A balkanized patchwork of something else. 

The overwhelming impression Hedges leaves in his work includes:

• The economic gains of workers and middle-class people after WWII have been slowly reversed. This was a conscious process by capitalist forces in control of government over the last few decades;
• Capitalism works to commodify and profit off of our bodies and our desires. This includes exploiting the vulnerable in forms like prostitution. Hedges is very, very critical of sex work, and seems to believe that it cannot be reformed or used as a way to liberate people;
• As Pankaj Mishra writes in Age of Anger, resentment is the default standpoint and ideological force of the modern world;
• Professional gambling is a rigged game of illusions, designed to ruin those who practice it. It’s also an analogy for how the wealth of modern capitalist countries is based on debt, illusory, and also doomed to fall;
• The government’s main role in our lives is to use force to protect property;
• If people exploited by this system want change, they need a popular movement. That movement must also frighten the powerful.  When push comes to shove, politics is a game of fear.

Hedges believes there is some hope in a popular nonviolent resistance movement. But he doesn’t believe it can be successful if it isn’t disruptive, organized, sustained and community oriented.  He cites the example of the Standing Rock protests against an oil pipeline running through indigenous burial grounds.  I want to believe he’s right – although reading America: The Farewell Tour convinced me that such a movement must also be capable of defending itself.  Labor movements won by blood the gains made by labor movements in the 1800s and early 1900s. These include the norms of a weekend or an eight hour workday. All involved armed strikers ready to fight back when attacked by police, thugs, or soldiers.

It’s a terrifying thought, in a lot of ways. No sane person in a country where where we try to resolve disagreements peacefully relishes the idea of doing it old school.  But this book, and others I’ve read this year, remind me that the era of relative peace we’ve known was limited in its longevity and its scope.  It had a beginning not long ago, and it benefits white men – especially those with property – more than any other group.  It will almost certainly have an end, and the effects will not be limited to one group, but probably impact us all.  This is one of those times where it’d be really nice to be wrong.

America: The Farewell Tour

A way to visit America's abandoned cities, addicts, sex workers, gamblers & more as we lurch toward collapse. Be sure to tip your corporate overlords on your way out.

• Informative Value B
• Readability A

Also on Prole Academy:

• COMMUNISM FOR KIDS – Bini Adamczak
• WHY MARX WAS RIGHT – Terry Eagleton
• MARX’S CAPITAL ILLUSTRATED – David Smith & Phil Evans

Reader Interactions

Have a comment, or a different reaction to these books share it with us below: cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

 Yes, add me to your mailing list

If you want to get in touch with us with any questions, suggestions or concerns, please Contact Us by clicking here.

Or find us on social media:

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Hello, prole..

Sign up to get our monthly-ish newsletter with fresh reviews and articles, polls and more. Get the first word about what's coming next on Prole Academy .

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

Thanks for subscribing! You're signed up for the newsletter (and nothing else. We don't sell your data for any reason, see our Privacy Policy for more details).

Privacy Policy   |   Notices & Disclaimers

Browse Books

You are here.

• Tony's blog

America: The Farewell Tour

Trade Paperback

LIST PRICE $20.00

Free shipping when you spend $40. Terms apply.

Buy from Other Retailers

• Amazon logo
• Bookshop logo

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

Resources and Downloads

High resolution images.

• Book Cover Image (jpg): America: The Farewell Tour Trade Paperback 9781501152689

More books from this author: Chris Hedges

Tell us what you like and we'll recommend books you'll love.

Last call - Alan Jackson is retiring with farewell tour that starts this summer: Where to buy tickets

• Updated: Jul. 03, 2024, 8:14 a.m. |
• Published: Jul. 03, 2024, 8:12 a.m.

Alan Jackson will start his "Last Call: One More For the Road" farewell tour on Aug. 2, 2024. Here, he performs at the Giant Center in Hershey, Pa., on May 18, 2019. PENNLIVE.COM

• Deb Kiner | [email protected]

Fans of Alan Jackson have fewer than a dozen more chances to see the superstar country singer in concert.

Jackson recently announced his “Last Call: One For the Road” tour of 10 concert dates from Aug. 2, 2024, through May 2025.

Fans can be sure that ticket prices will climb as tour dates get closer. Want to see him in concert? Buy them now here (starting prices are as of the time of this publication):

Friday, Aug. 2 - TD Garden, Boston, Massachusetts

• Tickets: Stubhub ($94), SeatGeek ($90), Vivid Seats ($93)

Saturday, Aug. 24 - Van Andel Arena, Grand Rapids, Michigan

• Tickets: Stubhub ($183), SeatGeek ($160), Vivid Seats ($174)

Saturday, Sept. 28 - Bud Walton Arena, Fayetteville, Arkansas

• Tickets: Stubhub ($166), SeatGeek ($147), Vivid Seats ($162)

Saturday, Oct. 26 - T-Mobile Center, Kansas City, Missouri

• Tickets: Stubhub ($134), SeatGeek ($127), Vivid Seats ($129)

Saturday, Nov. 16 - Delta Center, Salt Lake City, Utah

• Tickets: Stubhub ($126), SeatGeek ($152), Vivid Seats ($125)

Saturday, Jan. 18 - Paycom Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

• Tickets: Stubhub ($108), SeatGeek ($102), Vivid Seats ($104)

Saturday, Feb. 15 - Dickies Arena, Fort Worth, Texas

• Tickets: Stubhub ($215), SeatGeek ($279), Vivid Seats ($311)

Friday, March 7 - Kia Center, Orlando, Florida

• Tickets: Stubhub ($137), SeatGeek ($133), Vivid Seats ($138)

Saturday, April 26 - Amalie Arena, Tampa, Florida

• Tickets: Stubhub ($149), SeatGeek ($135), Vivid Seats ($148)

Saturday, May 17 - Fiserv Forum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

• Tickets: Stubhub ($130), SeatGeek ($118), Vivid Seats ($157)

Live Entertainment

• Sabrina Carpenter tour sold out quickly: Where to find tickets to her Pa. concert
• It’s ‘Quittin Time’: Where to buy tickets to see Zach Bryan in Pa. this summer
• Janet Jackson in Hershey: Where to get cheap last-minute tickets to her weekend show
• Spend the 4th of July with Justin Timberlake in Hershey: Where to get cheap last-minute tickets

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Alan Jackson's Farewell Tour: What to Know

Alan Jackson's final concert tour, 'Last Call: One More for the Road Tour,' kicks off again in August.

By Stephen Andrew - July 1, 2024 05:41 pm EDT

Alan Jackson is going back out for one last drive . The country music icon has announced that his Last Call: One More for the Road Tour — which he began in 2022 but had to pause due to  health issues  — will be fans' final opportunity to catch him live on tour.

"Fans know when they come to my shows, they're going to hear the songs that made me who I am – the ones they love," Jackson said, as reported by Taste of Country . "I've been touring for over 30 years – my daughters are all grown, we have one grandchild and one on the way... and I'm enjoying spending more time at home." He continued: "But my fans always show up to have a good time, and I'm going to give them the best show I can for this Last Call."

Below are the current 2024/'25 concert dates for Alan Jackson 's Last Call: One More for the Road Tour :

2024 Aug. 2 – Boston, Mass @ TD Garden Aug. 24 – Grand Rapids, Mich. @ Van Andel Arena Sept. 28 – Fayetteville, Ark. @ Bud Walton Arena Oct. 26 – Kansas City, Mo. @ T-Mobile Arena Nov. 16 – Salt Lake City, Utah @ Delta Center

2025 Jan. 18 – Oklahoma City, Okla. @ Paycom Center Feb. 15 – Fort Worth, Texas @ Dickies Arena March 7 – Orlando, Fla. @ Kia Center April 26 – Tampa, Fla. @ Amalie Arena May 17 – Milwaukee, Wisc. @ Fiserv Forum

Jackson may announce more shows, at a later date, but this is currently unclear.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Alan Jackson (@officialalanjackson)

Back in 2021, Jackson revealed that he's been living with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease , which is defined by the Mayo Clinic as "a group of inherited disorders that cause nerve damage. This damage is mostly in the arms and legs (peripheral nerves). Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease is also called hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy." The inherited disease is not fatal — and does not decrease life expectancy — but it is currently incurable.

• Alan Jackson Reveals Massive Family Update
• Alan Jackson Not Dead, Hoax Spreads on Facebook and Scares Fans
• Alan Jackson Reveals He Had to Be Convinced to Release 9/11 Song, 'Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)'

"There's no cure for it, but it's been affecting me for years. And it's getting more and more obvious," Jackson told Today at the time, also revealing that his grandmother, father, and one of his sisters all lived with the disorder. "And I know I'm stumbling around onstage. And now I'm having a little trouble balancing, even in front of the microphone, and so I just feel very uncomfortable."

Ultimately, complications related to the disease caused Jackson to have to halt the Last Call: One More for the Road Tour in 2022.

Trending Now:

There was a problem submitting your information. Please try again.

Thanks for joining, your inbox just got relevant.

Ellen DeGeneres cancels multiple shows on 2024 comedy tour

Ellen DeGeneres , who's currently on her farewell tour Ellen’s Last Stand… Up, has canceled four of her upcoming shows.

The Ticketmaster pages for her tour stops in Dallas (July 10), San Francisco (July 21), Seattle (July 23) and Chicago (Aug. 11) show a message that reads: "Unfortunately, the Event Organizer has had to cancel your event. You don't need to do a thing. We'll issue a refund to the original method of payment used at time of purchase, as soon as funds are received from the Event Organizer."

USA TODAY reached out to reps for DeGeneres and Live Nation for comment.

Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning.

On May 29, DeGeneres announced the summer tour across North America, which is described as "the last opportunity for fans to witness a comedy legend in her final curtain call." Organizers added an extra date each in San Francisco, Seattle and Chicago, but now those cities only have one show.

Several shows in Washington, Oregon and California had previously been announced, and DeGeneres kicked off the tour in Los Angeles back in April.

According to  Rolling Stone  and  People , during her opening night, DeGeneres took the opportunity to address the elephant in the room: Her absence from the limelight in recent years.

"We were both just laying low for a while," she said of herself and her wife of 15 years,  Portia de Rossi , per the outlets.

Ellen DeGeneres 2024 tour dates

• June 19: Balboa Theatre in San Diego
• June 20: Balboa Theatre in San Diego
• June 23: The Fox in Spokane, Washington
• June 24: The Fox in Spokane, Washington
• June 25: Newmark Theatre in Portland, Oregon
• June 26: Newmark Theatre in Portland, Oregon
• June 28: Hult Center for the Performing Arts in Eugene, Oregon
• June 30: Luther Burbank Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa, California
• July 1: Luther Burbank Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa, California
• July 2: Luther Burbank Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa, California
• July 8: Paramount Theatre in Denver
• July 13: ACL Live – Moody Theater in Austin, Texas
• July 20: The Masonic in San Francisco
• July 22: S. Mark Taper Auditorium in Seattle
• July 29: Boch Center Wang Theatre in Boston
• July 30: DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.
• July 31: Academy of Music in Philadelphia
• Aug. 1: Radio City Music Hall in New York City
• Aug. 5: Meridian Hall in Toronto
• Aug. 7: DPAC in Durham, North Carolina
• Aug. 8: Ovens Auditorium in Charlotte, North Carolina
• Aug. 10: Chicago Theatre in Chicago
• Aug. 13: Ryman Auditorium in Nashville
• Aug. 15: Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis
• Aug. 16: Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis
• Aug. 17: Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis

The final two shows in Minneapolis on Aug. 16 and 17 are labeled as a "special taping." DeGeneres has confirmed she's coming out with a new Netflix stand-up comedy special that'll be released later this year.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ellen DeGeneres cancels multiple shows on 2024 comedy tour

site categories

2024-25 awards season calendar – dates for oscars, emmys, grammys, guilds & more, x will bid farewell with final album & tour.

By Bruce Haring

Bruce Haring

pmc-editorial-manager

More Stories By

• Danny Trejo’s Car Attacked With Water Balloon At 4th Of July Event
• Los Angeles Landmark Nightclub The Satellite Memorialized In New Video
• Captain America, AKA Anthony Mackie, Wishes Fans A Happy 4th Of July

The iconic Los Angeles punk band X is issuing what it is calling its final album, Smoke & Fiction , and has detailed plans for a U.S. tour. 

The quartet of vocalist Exene Cervenka, vocalist/bassist John Doe, guitarist Billy Zoom and drummer DJ Bonebrake said they will end following a farewell tour supporting their ninth and final album, a 10-track album which will be released on August 2 on Fat Possum Records .

Related Stories

Kevin Bacon Dons Elaborate Disguise To Experience Life As Non-Famous Person, Concludes "This Sucks"

Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman & Shawn Levy Hit The Road For 'Deadpool & Wolverine'; Thank Shanghai "From The Heart Of Our Bottom"

Jul 6: The Uptown, Kansas City MO Jul 7: The Waiting Room, Omaha NE Jul 9: Del Mar Hall, St. Louis Jul 10: Turner Hall, Milwaukee Jul 12: The Varsity, Minneapolis Jul 13: Square Roots Festival, Chicago Jul 14: Fitzgerald’s, Chicago Jul 16: The Masonic, Detroit Jul 17: The Kent Stage, Kent OH Jul 19: The Vogue, Indianapolis Jul 25: The Regent, Los Angeles Jul 26: The Regent, Los Angeles Jul 28: Pacific Amphitheatre, Costa Mesa CA Jul 30: Belly Up, Solana Beach CA

Aug 19: The Guild Theatre, Menlo Park CA Aug 20: The Guild Theatre, Menlo Park CA Aug 22: Knitting Factory, Boise ID Aug 23: Spokane Knitting Factory, WA Aug 25: The Aladdin, Portland Aug 28: The Depot, Salt Lake City Aug 30: The Summit, Denver Sep 1: The El Rey, Albuquerque Sep 22: Tupelo Music Hall, Derry NH Sep 23: The Wilbur, Boston Sep 25: Empire Live, Albany NY Sep 26: Water Street Music Hall, Rochester NY Sep 27: Jergel’s, Pittsburgh Sep 28: The State Theatre, Falls Church VA Sep 30: Keswick Theater, Philadelphia Oct 1: Patchogue Theatre, Patchogue NY Oct 2: District Music Hall, Norwalk CT Oct 4: Palladium Times Square, New York City

Must Read Stories

Firing off with “a” cinemascore & $120m 5-day holiday debut in reach.

ABC Moves Biden Sit-Down To Friday Primetime; Latest On Post-Debate Fallout

Alec baldwin, other producers denied lucrative new mexico state film tax incentive, fourth of july: what to watch today, from fireworks to specials & more.

Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy.

Read More About:

Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Country music legend shares life announcement ahead of farewell tour

• Published: Jun. 28, 2024, 3:08 p.m.

Alan Jackson is preparing to head out on his farewell tour.(Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP, File) Invision

• Molly Walsh | [email protected]

NASHVILLE, Tennessee -- Country music Hall of Famer Alan Jackson announced last month he is returning to the road for one final tour and then plans to spend more time with family.

As of this week, that family is growing.

His daughter, Mattie Jackson, announced she gave birth this week to a boy.

“One week ago my life was forever changed,” she said in an Instagram post Thursday . “Wesley Alan Smith joined our little family on June 20th, the absolute best birthday gift I could have ever imagined. There is no greater honor in life than being chosen by God to be your mom.”

Her dad, 65, will continue the “Last Call: One More for the Road” tour which features performances in cities across the U.S. beginning in August and going through May 2025.

Legendary rock band cancels tour dates due to singer’s medical procedure

Country music star demands restraining order, estranged wife fires back

Ailing country legend announces farewell tour

The musician wrote about his daughter’s pregnancy in a social media post earlier this year.

“Blessings overflowing in our growing family!” he wrote. “Denise and I are thrilled for our second grandson to arrive in June! We’re so happy for proud parents Mattie and Connor Smith and can’t wait to meet the next addition to our family.”

Jackson will continue his tour, which took place across the U.S. in 2022. The tour features performances in 10 cities across the U.S. beginning in August and going through May 2025.

Tickets and tour information can be found on Alan Jackson’s website . $1 from every ticket sold going toward the CMT Research Foundation, a 501(c)(3) federal tax-exempt organization, with each donation being matched by a group of CMTRF donors, according to a news release.

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

• Entertainment

The best concerts of 2024 so far: AP’s picks include Olivia Rodrigo, Bad Bunny, George Strait, SZA

As The Associated Press’ music writer, Maria Sherman has seen more than 40 concerts during the first half of 2024. Here are some picks for the best shows … so far, excluding any one-off performances that cannot be repeated, and where you too can catch these artists.

Bad Bunny, “The Most Wanted Tour”

March 14, Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena

Bad Bunny’s show begins with a symphony, transitioning into the unmistakable strings of his monster hit, “Monaco.” “The Most Wanted Tour” highlights El Conejo Malo’s fifth solo album “Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana” (“Nobody Knows What Will Happen Tomorrow”) and his past reggaetón hits, too.

HIGHLIGHT: There is one moment that can only be described as equine.

OPENER: When you’re one of the biggest artists on the planet, do you really need an opener? Bad Bunny didn’t.

SEE IT YOURSELF: This particular run of shows has come to an end, but here’s a reminder to catch him next time he’s in town.

Olivia Rodrigo, “GUTS World Tour”

April 5, New York’s Madison Square Garden

Rodrigo’s spirited punky-pop warms an arena, as does her irreverent charms and Disney-informed dancing. If women performing their rage has fallen out of vogue, Rodrigo has brought it back, full force.

HIGHLIGHT: For the fans of her big-hearted ballads — in one moment, she’s lifted into the air and circles the arena in a purple crescent moon to slow things down.

OPENER: The Breeders — fronted by the Pixies’ Kim Deal — legends of ’90s college radio and indie rock. There’s something completist about hearing an arena discover “Cannonball” for the first time, a song that no doubt inspired Rodrigo’s music.

SEE IT YOURSELF: Rodrigo heads back to the U.S. this month with a new opener, the U.K. hyperpop producer PinkPantheress, before the Breeders return for two final nights in Los Angeles.

Brutalismus 3000, “AMERIKATRÄUME”

April 11, New York’s Knockdown Center

Every generation gets the Crystal Castles it deserves. Or in less niche language: This Berlin duo brings humor to their music, which veers from hyperactive techno to German Neue Deutsche Welle in their acquired-taste electronica. The shows are sweaty, and no matter your age, you will be the oldest person in attendance.

HIGHLIGHT: The duo samples Dido’s soft-pop hit “White Flag,” while waving a white flag. It works.

OPENER: The techno-punk LustSickPuppy, whose abrasive rave music is presented as a kind of nightmarish clown show.

SEE IT YOURSELF: Brutalismus will be hitting a few festivals in Europe this summer and fall.

Nicki Minaj, “Pink Friday 2 World Tour”

May 1, New York’s Barclays Center

She will run on club time, and she will not disappoint. Nicki Minaj’s “Pink Friday 2” is almost a retrospective of her chart-toppers, shifting alter-egos with incredible ease.

HIGHLIGHT: At this particular show, Minaj brought out Cyndi Lauper to duet “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” after 1 a.m.

OPENER: Monica has joined Minaj for this tour, and in Brooklyn, Pepa of Salt-N-Pepa opened the show.

SEE IT YOURSELF: Minaj is hitting the European festival circuit this summer, then heading back to the U.S. in September.

Sum 41, “Tour of the Setting Sum”

May 6, New York’s Brooklyn Paramount

Canadian pop-punk band Sum 41 has called it quits — and they’re going out in a blaze of glory, a farewell tour that has the immediacy of their youth.

HIGHLIGHT: Sum 41 does not want to exit quietly — they prove their endurance with an explosive set, fireworks and mosh pits and all. There’s also a giant, blow-up skull.

OPENER: The Interrupters, a ska-punk band that revitalized the genre, are worth arriving early for. At future dates, Sum 41 will be joined by Gob, Pup, Neck Deep and the Bronx.

SEE IT YOURSELF: Sum 41 is zigzagging across Europe and North America through early 2025.

Most Read Business Stories

• Seattle house prices fall as temperatures rise. But buyers are weary
• Bezos to Sell $5 Billion of Amazon as Shares Hit Record High
• Seattle-area home values rebound, but offices take a hit
• Steve Ballmer richer than Bill Gates, a first for Microsoft billionaires
• After steering major deal, Shanahan, CEO of Boeing supplier, could be next Boeing boss

Megan Thee Stallion, “Hot Girl Summer Tour”

May 21, Madison Square Garden

Not every artist can sell out Madison Square Garden on her first tour, but Megan Thee Stallion is not every artist. On her stage, Megan is an athlete and a dancer who delivers her fierce bars with an incredible crispness.

HIGHLIGHT: “WAP” is a can’t miss moment, of course — particularly if Cardi B makes a surprise appearance, like she did at MSG.

OPENER: Tennessee rapper GloRilla, who was most recently featured on the great, braggy “Accent” from the headliner’s third album, “Megan.”

SEE IT YOURSELF: Europe will get to catch her in July, before she heads back home for a few festivals.

The Rolling Stones, “Stones Tour ’24 Hackney Diamonds”

May 23, East Rutherford, New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium

The Rolling Stones ran through 60 years of hits across two hours, including cuts from their first album of new material in nearly two decades, “Hackney Diamonds.”

HIGHLIGHT: When it comes to The Rolling Stones, the entire show is the highlight — but for this audience, it was likely the rollicking rendition of “Wild Horses.”

OPENER: The soulful Jon Batiste, an award-show staple for a reason.

SEE IT YOURSELF: The Stones’ North American tour continues through July.

George Strait

June 8, MetLife Stadium

They call him the King of Country for a reason. Live, George Strait can transform his one-off stadium shows into a honky-tonk; he performs with a big band and a lot of heart.

HIGHLIGHT: The closest a person can get to levitation is singing along to “Amarillo by Morning” in a stadium of tens of thousands.

OPENER: Chris Stapleton and Little Big Town, with Stapleton joining Strait for a new song called “Honky Tonk Hall of Fame.”

SEE IT YOURSELF: Strait has a two more stadium dates in July — in Detroit and Chicago — and another in December, in Las Vegas.

Governors Ball: Chappell Roan, Sexyy Red, SZA, Peso Pluma

June 7-9, New York’s Flushing Meadows Corona Park

Summer festivals across the United States tend to have similar lineups. Governors Ball, arriving early in the season, sets the tone.

HIGHLIGHT: Now is the time to run, don’t walk, to see Chappell Roan. And learn the “Hot to Go” dance.

OPENER: Sexyy Red’s frisky rap is hard to deny.

SEE IT YOURSELF: Many of these artists will be hitting festivals in North American and Europe this summer. In fact, if you want to catch SZA, Sexyy Red and Chappell Roan in one go, consider Lollapalooza in August. Pluma is currently on his “Éxodo Tour” across North America, running through October.

Feb. 18, Melbourne, Australia’s Northcote Social Club

In the search for thrilling, cathartic underground music — particularly of the indie variety — look no further than the rich scene of Melbourne, Australia. CLAMM, the punk trio, brings a controlled aggression to their live show. It is ferocious noise punk that hits like inhaling hand sanitizer — stinging alert their audience with clever agitation.

HIGHLIGHT: Later this month, CLAMM will release a new record, “Disembodiment.” Live, they’ve begun performing the chant-along opening cut, “Change Enough.”

OPENER: At this particular show, the Aussie indie band Scott and Charlene’s Wedding and the rapper Mulalo. A genre-diverse club show is a life-affirming club show.

SEE IT YOURSELF: CLAMM are headed to Europe for a series of dates this July, and back to Australia in August.

• Election 2024
• Entertainment
• Newsletters
• Photography
• AP Investigations
• AP Buyline Personal Finance
• AP Buyline Shopping
• Press Releases
• Israel-Hamas War
• Russia-Ukraine War
• Global elections
• Asia Pacific
• Latin America
• Middle East
• Election Results
• Delegate Tracker
• AP & Elections
• Auto Racing
• 2024 Paris Olympic Games
• Movie reviews
• Book reviews
• Financial Markets
• Business Highlights
• Financial wellness
• Artificial Intelligence
• Social Media

Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff lead the Olympics entry list

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic plays a forehand return to Vit Kopriva of the Czech Republic during their first round match at the Wimbledon tennis championships in London, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

FILE - Spain’s Rafael Nadal plays a shot against Germany’s Alexander Zverev during their first round match of the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Monday, May 27, 2024. Nadal is going to skip Wimbledon, as expected, and instead prepare for the Paris Olympics by entering a clay-court tournament in Bastad, Sweden. The 22-time Grand Slam champion said Thursday, June 13, 2024, he wants to just remain on clay, rather than switching over to grass for the All England Club and then needing to go back to clay. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)

FILE - From left, silver medalist Switzerland’s Roger Federer, gold medalist Andy Murray of Great Britain, and bronze medalist Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina stand during the medal ceremony of the men’s singles event at the All England Lawn Tennis Club at Wimbledon, in London, at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)

Iga Swiatek of Poland plays a backhand return to Sofia Kenin of the United States during their first round match at the Wimbledon tennis championships in London, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Mosa’ab Elshamy)

Coco Gauff of the United States reacts after defeating Anca Todoni of Romania in their match on day three at the Wimbledon tennis championships in London, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Mosa’ab Elshamy)

• Copy Link copied

LONDON (AP) — Novak Djokovic , Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray all were included on the entry list for tennis at the Paris Olympics released by the International Tennis Federation on Thursday, as was Daniil Medvedev, who technically will be competing as a “neutral” athlete rather than representing Russia because of that country’s ongoing war in Ukraine.

Djokovic (Serbia) and Murray (Britain) are both 37, and Nadal (Spain) is 38, and all own multiple Grand Slam titles. Djokovic holds a men’s-record 24 major trophies — but he has never won a gold medal at the Olympics.

Nadal, next on the men’s Slam list with 22, won golds in singles in 2008 and in doubles in 2016. He skipped Wimbledon , which is currently being played, to prepare for the Olympics.

Murray won three major championships and is the only tennis player with consecutive singles gold medals at the Summer Games. He has said he plans to retire after the Paris Olympics, which will hold tennis matches from July 27 to Aug. 4 on the clay courts at Roland Garros, the site of the French Open — where Nadal is a 14-time champ.

The leading women on the entry list are No. 1 Iga Swiatek (Poland), No. 2 Coco Gauff (United States) and No. 4 Elena Rybakina (Kazakhstan). No. 3 Aryna Sabalenka decided not to go to the Olympics; her nation, Belarus, aided Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, so she would have competed as a “neutral” athlete, like Medvedev will be.

Swiatek is a five-time Grand Slam champion — including at the French Open in four of the past five years — and Gauff and Rybakina have won one major apiece. Gauff made the U.S. team for the Tokyo Games three years ago, but she did not go because she tested positive for COVID-19.

Paris Olympics

• The Olympics are more than fun and games . They’re a billion-dollar business with political overtones.
• Breakdance will make it’s debut as an Olympic sport in Paris.. Here’s what else will be different at this year’s games.
• Follow all of AP’s coverage of the Summer Games .

There are 64-player draws for women’s and men’s singles, and 32 teams each in women’s and men’s doubles. The 16 entries for mixed doubles will be determined on July 24. The draw to determine the brackets will be in Paris on July 25.

Among the other players announced Thursday are three-time major champion Carlos Alcaraz — who will play doubles alongside Nadal for Spain — No. 1 Jannik Sinner (Italy), Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Alexander Zverev (Germany), 2008 doubles gold medalist Stan Wawrinka (Switzerland), four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka (Japan), 2019 U.S. Open champion Bianca Andreescu (Canada) and 2018 Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark).

Osaka lit the cauldron at the Toyo Olympics.

Lebanon will make its debut in Olympic tennis, with Benjamin Hassan entered in singles and also partnering with Hady Habib in doubles.

AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games