Joe Bageant

Around my home town, with two stops for beer

These photos of Winchester, Virginia and nearby West Virginia were taken by New York photographer, Sean Gallagher. Most of my essays and stories are set and rooted in this old Virginia town and its surrounding area in the historic Shenandoah Valley. My original ancestor came here with the English General Braddock's army in the 1740s. We've been here ever since, and seem to have chiefly occupied our time geting fatter and more religious. Whatever the case, this is my home. Home to everything thoughtless and dangerous about America these days, home to most of the people I have loved and certainly home to all my ghosts.

Click here for a photo album of a trip around my home town, with two stops for beer.

Photos of My Visit to the French Riviera

"So," you might ask, "what's a redneck Marxist doing on the French Riviera?" Well, the same thing that millions of French workers have been doing for the past three-quarter's of a century: not much, other than drinking, eating, breathing clean air, and talking to friendly folks. And, anyway, Karl Marx stayed for a month here in 1882 -- three times longer than my vacation.

Where in the World is Joe Bageant?

Sunil K. Sharma, my good friend and the editor of Dissident Voice, has been a strong supporter since he posted my first online essay almost two years ago. Last May, when I began working on my book to be published next year, I stopped writing the essays for a while -- I'm not a good multi-tasker. Sunil claims many of his readers missed my rants and some even said my absence caused them to worry about me. So, Sunil posted the following note: