Chris Hedges (b. 1956) is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who worked for more than fifteen years at the New York Times and spent nearly twenty years as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa, and the Balkans. He is the author of four best-selling nonfiction books, and his articles and essays have appeared in numerous publications, including Harper’s, New York Review of Books, Granta, and Mother Jones.

Joe Sacco (b. 1960) is a world-renowned cartoonist and the author of eleven books. His journalistic comics have appeared in Details, the New York Times Magazine, Time, and Harper’s.

from Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt

In 2012, Hedges and Sacco published Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, a collaboration of illustrations and stories that expose the “sacrifice zones” of postcapitalist America—from Native American reservations to deserted manufacturing towns to Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. The excerpt here is from “Days of Siege,” the chapter on Camden, New Jersey, a dying city that used to be full of industry and manufacturing and is now impoverished and crime ridden. The main character is seventy-six-year-old Joe Bolzano, who is described as one of a “handful of white citizens who never left the city [of Camden].”