This is contrasted with the ascendance of a minority doctrine that preaches a faultless Bible that then offers an absolute message about the desires for God to establish a Christian United States through dominion theology and tenuous interpretations of the book of Revelation.

This is followed by the chapter "God: The Commercial," which contrasts the pro-capitalist opulence of Trinity Broadcast Network televangelist Paul Crouch with the destitution and despair of wide swaths of their target audience.

Hedges notes that, instead of presenting spiritual influences as an immaterial threat, Christian media like the Left Behind series names existing institutions and Islam as seats of power for the Antichrist.

Hedges then argues that the movement, being financially sponsored by a broad range of corporations and increasingly preoccupied with messages of committing violence, represents a threat to the open society.

Rick Perlstein of The New York Times was critical of the work, saying that Hedges "writes on this subject as a neophyte, and pads out his dispatches with ungrounded theorizing, unconvincing speculation and examples that fall far short of bearing out his thesis."

[5] A New York Observer review by Jonathan Liu described American Fascists as "audacious" and "daring" in its wide coverage of social issues and its broad denunciations of liberal and conservative society alike.