Chris Hedges
A war correspondent turned moral critic who chronicles the decay of American empire and liberal democracy.
Born 1956 (age 70)·American journalist, author, commentator and minister·Birthday: September 18·Baby Boomers
Biography
Chris Hedges spent nearly two decades in the furnace of global conflict, reporting from war zones for The New York Times, where he was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize. His dispatches from places like Sarajevo and Baghdad were not just news items; they were visceral, philosophical meditations on violence and power. That frontline experience forged a perspective that turned inward on his own country. Leaving daily journalism, Hedges became a prolific author and lecturer, his work a sustained, fiery critique of what he sees as the corrosive forces of corporate capitalism, the betrayal of the liberal class, and the rise of a new American fascism. He writes with the urgency of a prophet and the precision of a scholar, holding a seminary degree alongside his journalism credentials. Whether discussing the addiction of war, the deadening effect of spectacle culture, or the necessity of civil disobedience, Hedges positions himself as an outsider speaking uncomfortable truths to a society he believes is in terminal decline.
Baby Boomers
1946–1964
The largest generation in history at the time. Shaped by postwar prosperity, the Vietnam War, the sexual revolution, and Watergate. They questioned every institution their parents built — then ran them.
Chris was born in 1956, placing them squarely in the Baby Boomers. The events that shaped this generation — postwar prosperity, civil rights, Vietnam, and the counterculture — shaped the world they entered and the choices available to them.
#1 When Chris Was Born
The biggest hits of 1956
#1 Movie
The Ten Commandments
Best Picture
Around the World in 80 Days
#1 TV Show
I Love Lucy
Chris's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1956Born
Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show
Gas: $0.30/galHome: $10,050Min wage: $1.00/hrPresident: Dwight D. Eisenhower"Heartbreak Hotel" — Elvis PresleyBest Picture: Around the World in 80 Days
1961Started school
Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space
Gas: $0.31/galHome: $12,500Min wage: $1.15/hrPresident: John F. Kennedy"Tossin' and Turnin'" — Bobby LewisBest Picture: West Side Story
1969Became a teenager
Apollo 11: humans walk on the Moon; Woodstock festival
Gas: $0.35/galHome: $15,550Min wage: $1.60/hrPresident: Richard Nixon"Sugar, Sugar" — The ArchiesBest Picture: Midnight Cowboy
1972Could drive
Watergate break-in; last Apollo Moon mission
Gas: $0.36/galHome: $19,550Min wage: $1.60/hrPresident: Richard Nixon"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" — Roberta FlackBest Picture: The Godfather
1974Could vote
Nixon resigns the presidency
Gas: $0.53/galHome: $22,600Min wage: $2.00/hrPresident: Gerald Ford"The Way We Were" — Barbra StreisandBest Picture: The Godfather Part II
1977Turned 21
Star Wars premieres; Elvis dies
Gas: $0.62/galHome: $31,800Min wage: $2.30/hrPresident: Jimmy Carter"Tonight's the Night" — Rod StewartBest Picture: Annie Hall
1986Turned 30
Challenger disaster; Chernobyl nuclear meltdown
Gas: $0.86/galHome: $66,600Min wage: $3.35/hrPresident: Ronald Reagan"That's What Friends Are For" — Dionne & FriendsBest Picture: Platoon
1996Turned 40
Dolly the sheep cloned
Gas: $1.23/galHome: $99,700Min wage: $4.75/hrPresident: Bill Clinton"Macarena" — Los del RioBest Picture: The English Patient
2006Turned 50
Twitter launches; Pluto reclassified as dwarf planet
Gas: $2.59/galHome: $174,700Min wage: $5.15/hrPresident: George W. Bush"Bad Day" — Daniel PowterBest Picture: The Departed
2016Turned 60
Donald Trump elected president; Brexit vote
Gas: $2.14/galHome: $181,700Min wage: $7.25/hrPresident: Barack Obama"Love Yourself" — Justin BieberBest Picture: Moonlight
2026Turned 70
Gas: $3.91/galPresident: Donald Trump
Key Achievements
- Served as a foreign correspondent for The New York Times for fifteen years, covering conflicts in the Balkans, Middle East, and Central America.
- Was part of the team of New York Times reporters awarded the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for coverage of global terrorism.
- Authored over a dozen books, including the bestseller 'War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning.'
- Was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 2014, merging his intellectual and spiritual critiques of society.
Did You Know?
He was captured and held for a week by Iraqi Republican Guard forces during the Gulf War in 1991.
Hedges taught a college course in maximum-security prisons in New Jersey.
He speaks Arabic, which he learned while studying at Harvard Divinity School and later living in the Middle East.
His father was a Presbyterian minister who fought in the Spanish Civil War with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.
“The vocation of the journalist is to destroy truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon.”
