Chris Hedges has spent much of his life covering the world as a foreign correspondent. Lately, he's been focused on what he calls the Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt in the United States. That's the title of his new book, which documents the devastation of a series of U.S. communities in excruciating, heart-rending detail. He argues, based on reporting from countries where people have risen up against injustice, that a sort of revolution is brewing in the U.S. right now. He's controversial, a supporter of the Occupy movement, wildly popular in some circles... and he argues Canada is suffering the same disease of decay.

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Part Two of The Current

We started this segment with a clip from the classic CBS news documentary Harvest of Shame, an investigation into the desperate lives of migrant agricultural workers in the United States. Fifty-two years later, journalist and author Chris Hedges tells us the harvest is as shameful as ever.

He's written a book investigating what he calls America's sacrifice zones, including farms, mines and Native reservations. It concludes with a plea for change, much more radical than the change President Barack Obama used to campaign on.

The book is called Days of Destruction/Days of Revolt. It's illustrated, strikingly illustrated, by Joe Sacco. And Chris Hedges was in Toronto.

This segment was produced by The Current's Howard Goldenthal.

Other segments from today's show:

• Banking on Iran