Most Popular Books by Noam Chomsky

In this classic talk delivered at the Poetry Center, New York, on February 16, 1970, Noam Chomsky articulates a clear, uncompromising vision of social change. Chomsky contrasts the classical liberal, libertarian socialist, state socialist, and state capitalist world views and then defends a libertarian socialist vision as "the proper and natural extension . . . of classical liberalism into the era of advanced industrial society." In his stirring conclusion Chomsky argues, "We have today the technical and material resources to meet man’s animal needs.We have not developed the cultural and moral resources or the democratic forms of social organization that make possible the humane and rational use of our material wealth and power. Conceivably, the classical liberal ideals as expressed and developed in their libertarian socialist form are achievable. But if so, only by a popular revolutionary movement, rooted in wide strata of the population and committed to the elimination of repressive and authoritarian institutions, state and private. To create such a movement is a challenge we face and must meet if there is to be an escape from contemporary barbarism."

The renowned philosopher and political theorist presents a summation of his influential work in this series of Columbia University lectures. A pioneer in the fields of modern linguistics and cognitive science, Noam Chomsky is also one of the most avidly read political theorist of our time. In this series of lectures, Chomsky presents more than half a century of philosophical reflection on all three of these areas. In precise yet accessible language, Chomsky elaborates on the scientific study of language, sketching how his own work has implications for the origins of language, the close relations that language bears to thought, its eventual biological basis. He expounds and criticizes many alternative theories, such as those that emphasize the social, the communicative, and the referential aspects of language. He also investigates the apparent scope and limits of human cognitive capacities. Moving from language and mind to society and politics, Chomsky concludes with a philosophical defense of a position he describes as "libertarian socialism," tracing its links to anarchism and the ideas of John Dewey, and even briefly to the ideas of Karl Marx and John Stuart Mill. Demonstrating its conceptual growth out of our historical past, he also shows its urgent relation to our present moment.

Noam Chomsky argues that, contrary to popular perception, the real ''rogue'' states in the world today are not the dictator-led developing countries we hear about in the news, but the United States and its allies. He challenges the legal and humanitarian reasons given to justify intervention in global conflicts in order to reveal the West''s reliance on the rule of force.He examines NATO''s intervention in Kosovo, the crisis in East Timor, and US involvement in the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Latin America. Chomsky relies on both historical context and recently released government documents to trace the paths of self-interest and domination that fuelled these violent regional conflicts. Throughout, he reveals the United States''s increasingly open dismissal of the United Nations and international legal precedent in justifying its motives and actions. Characteristically incisive and provocative, Chomsky demonstrates that the rule of law has been reduced to farce.

First published in 2001, Propaganda and the Public Mind constitutes a series of discussions with the journalist David Barsamian and is the perfect complement to Chomsky''s major works of media study such as Manufacturing Consent and Necessary llusions. Events discussed in detail are the so-called ''Battle of Seattle'' protests against the World Trade Organisation, US involvement in East Timor, and the beginning of the movement towards a second Iraq War - as well as timeless explorations of Chomsky''s political friends and influences such as the Pakistani scholar Eqbal Ahmad. This book is an invitation to take part in a conversation with one of the great minds of our time.

In this first collection of interviews since the bestselling 9-11, our foremost intellectual activist examines crucial new questions of U.S. foreign policy Timely, urgent, and powerfully elucidating, this important volume of previously unpublished interviews conducted by award-winning radio journalist David Barsamian features Noam Chomsky discussing America''s policies in an increasingly unstable world. With his famous insight, lucidity, and redoubtable grasp of history, Chomsky offers his views on the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the doctrine of "preemptive" strikes against so-called rogue states, and the prospects of the second Bush administration, warning of the growing threat to international peace posed by the U.S. drive for domination. In his inimitable style, Chomsky also dissects the propaganda system that fabricates a mythic past and airbrushes inconvenient facts out of history. Barsamian, recipient of the ACLU''s Upton Sinclair Award for independent journalism, has conducted more interviews and radio broadcasts with Chomsky than has any other journalist. Enriched by their unique rapport, Imperial Ambitions explores topics Chomsky has never before discussed, among them the 2004 presidential campaign and election, the future of Social Security, and the increasing threat, including devastating weather patterns, of global warming. The result is an illuminating dialogue with one of the leading thinkers of our time—and a startling picture of the turbulent times in which we live.

No detailed description available for "Current Issues in Linguistic Theory".

Routledge Revivals presents a reissue of Noam Chomksy''s MA thesis, written in 1951, and first published in 1979. Morphophonemics of Modern Hebrew is a landmark study in linguistics and generative phonology, which provides not only an analysis of morphophonemics but of the entire grammar of Modern Hebrew from syntax to phonology. Professor Chomsky''s goal in this thesis is nothing less than a complete generative grammar of the Hebrew language. This work is of singular importance as it contains the genesis of the author''s work in the field of generative grammar which has had such a profound impact upon the study of linguistics. This reissue of a truly pioneering work will be of great interest to all those concerned with generative grammar and its origins, and with the progression of thought of one of the greatest minds of our time.

Contents Foreword by Edward W. Said Preface to the Updated Edition 1. Fanning the Flames 2. The Origins of the "Special Relationship" 3. Rejectionism and Accommodation 4. Isreal and Palestine: Historical Backgrounds 5. Peace for Galilee 6. Aftermath 7. The Road to Armageddon 8. The Palestinian Uprising 9. "Limited War" in Lebanon 10. Washington''s "Peace Process" Index An Excerpt from Fateful Triangle, Updated Edition For some time, I''ve been compelled to arrange speaking engagements long in advance. Sometimes a title is requested for a talk scheduled several years ahead. There is, I''ve found, one title that always works: "The current crisis in the Middle East." One can''t predict exactly what the crisis will be far down the road, but that there will be one is a fairly safe prediction. That will continue to be the case as long as basic problems of the region are not addressed. Furthermore, the crises will be serious in what President Eisenhower called "the most strategically important area in the world." In the early post-War years, the United States in effect extended the Monroe Doctrine to the Middle East, barring any interference apart from Britain, assumed to be a loyal dependency and quickly punished when it occasionally got out of hand (as in 1956). The strategic importance of the region lies primarily in its immense petroleum reserves and the global power accorded by control over them; and, crucially, from the huge profits that flow to the Anglo-American rulers, which have been of critical importance for their economies. It has been necessary to ensure that this enormous wealth flows primarily to the West, not to the people of the region. That is one fundamental problem that will continue to cause unrest and disorder. Another is the Israel-Arab conflict with its many ramifications, which have been closely related to the major U.S. strategic goal of dominating the region''s resources and wealth. For many years, it was claimed the core problem was Soviet subversion and expansionism, the reflexive justification for virtually all policies since the Bolshevik takeover in Russia in 1917. That pretext having

No detailed description available for "Studies on Semantics in Generative Grammar".

The architecture of the human language faculty has been one of the main foci of the linguistic research of the last half century. This branch of linguistics, broadly known as Generative Grammar, is concerned with the formulation of explanatory formal accounts of linguistic phenomena with the ulterior goal of gaining insight into the properties of the ''language organ''. The series comprises high quality monographs and collected volumes that address such issues. The topics in this series range from phonology to semantics, from syntax to information structure, from mathematical linguistics to studies of the lexicon.

For decades, Noam Chomsky has been considered one of the most important critics of American''s foreign policy in Central and Latin America and yet Turning the Tide is one of his only written works which makes that region its sole focus. At last back in print after almost thirty years, Turning the Tide explores such neglected but vital issues as Jimmy Carter''s interventions in El Salvador, the violation of human rights in Nicaragua and Guatemala, and American involvement with death squads in many countries including Bolivia and El Salvador. For all activists and scholars whose work focuses on Central and Latin America, Turning the Tide remains essential.

A "compelling indictment of the news media''s role in covering up errors and deceptions" (The New York Times Book Review) due to the underlying economics of publishing—from famed scholars Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky. With a new introduction. In this pathbreaking work, Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky show that, contrary to the usual image of the news media as cantankerous, obstinate, and ubiquitous in their search for truth and defense of justice, in their actual practice they defend the economic, social, and political agendas of the privileged groups that dominate domestic society, the state, and the global order. Based on a series of case studies—including the media’s dichotomous treatment of “worthy” versus “unworthy” victims, “legitimizing” and “meaningless” Third World elections, and devastating critiques of media coverage of the U.S. wars against Indochina—Herman and Chomsky draw on decades of criticism and research to propose a Propaganda Model to explain the media’s behavior and performance. Their new introduction updates the Propaganda Model and the earlier case studies, and it discusses several other applications. These include the manner in which the media covered the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement and subsequent Mexican financial meltdown of 1994-1995, the media’s handling of the protests against the World Trade Organization, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund in 1999 and 2000, and the media’s treatment of the chemical industry and its regulation. What emerges from this work is a powerful assessment of how propagandistic the U.S. mass media are, how they systematically fail to live up to their self-image as providers of the kind of information that people need to make sense of the world, and how we can understand their function in a radically new way.

No detailed description available for "Topics in the Theory of Generative Grammar".

In 9-11, published in November 2001 and arguably the single most influential post 9-11 book, internationally renowned thinker Noam Chomsky bridged the information gap around the World Trade Center attacks, cutting through the tangle of political opportunism, expedient patriotism, and general conformity that choked off American discourse in the months immediately following. Chomsky placed the attacks in context, marshaling his deep and nuanced knowledge of American foreign policy to trace the history of American political aggression--in the Middle East and throughout Latin America as well as in Indonesia, in Afghanistan, in India and Pakistan--at the same time warning against America’s increasing reliance on military rhetoric and violence in its response to the attacks, and making the critical point that the mainstream media and public intellectuals were failing to make: any escalation of violence as a response to violence will inevitably lead to further, and bloodier, attacks on innocents in America and around the world. This new edition of 9-11, published on the tenth anniversary of the attacks and featuring a new preface by Chomsky, reminds us that today, just as much as ten years ago, information and clarity remain our most valuable tools in the struggle to prevent future violence against the innocent, both at home and abroad.

The fiftieth anniversary edition of a landmark work in generative grammar that continues to be influential, with a new preface by the author. Noam Chomsky''s Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, published in 1965, was a landmark work in generative grammar that introduced certain technical innovations still drawn upon in contemporary work. The fiftieth anniversary edition of this influential book includes a new preface by the author that identifies proposals that seem to be of lasting significance, reviews changes and improvements in the formulation and implementation of basic ideas, and addresses some of the controversies that arose over the general framework. Beginning in the mid-fifties and emanating largely from MIT, linguists developed an approach to linguistic theory and to the study of the structure of particular languages that diverged in many respects from conventional modern linguistics. Although the new approach was connected to the traditional study of languages, it differed enough in its specific conclusions about the structure of language to warrant a name, “generative grammar.” Various deficiencies were discovered in the first attempts to formulate a theory of transformational generative grammar and in the descriptive analysis of particular languages that motivated these formulations. At the same time, it became apparent that these formulations can be extended and deepened. In this book, Chomsky reviews these developments and proposes a reformulation of the theory of transformational generative grammar that takes them into account. The emphasis in this study is syntax; semantic and phonological aspects of the language structure are discussed only insofar as they bear on syntactic theory.

Analyzing the NATO bombing, Noam Chomsky challenges the New Humanism. With a powerful grasp of history -- and an incisive argument about its relevance in this new era -- Chomsky peels back rhetorical claims that the United States and its allies fight for a world where those responsible for ethnic cleansing have nowhere to hide.With his uniquely powerful style, Chomsky reviews the many facts that just won''t do. From administration knowledge that bombing would escalate Serb atrocities, to the opportunities for diplomacy passed over in favor of war, the facts are so numerous as to warrant a chapter on the denial syndrome: an affliction necessary to hold the official version of reality in place.

The volatile Middle East is the site of vast resources, profound passions, frequent crises, and long-standing conflicts, as well as a major source of international tensions and a key site of direct US intervention. Two of the most astute analysts of this part of the world are Noam Chomsky, the preeminent critic of U.S, foreign policy, and Gilbert Achcar, a leading specialist of the Middle East who lived in that region for many years. In their new book, Chomsky and Achcar bring a keen understanding of the internal dynamics of the Middle East and of the role of the United States, taking up all the key questions of interest to concerned citizens, including such topics as terrorism, fundamentalism, conspiracies, oil, democracy, self-determination, anti-Semitism, and anti-Arab racism, as well as the war in Afghanistan, the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the sources of U.S. foreign policy. This book provides the best readable introduction for all who wish to understand the complex issues related to the Middle East from a perspective dedicated to peace and justice.

The left''s leading critic takes on the Post-Cold War world, including the Gulf War, the Clinton Administration, and the Israeli-Palestinian question in a critique of Western government that focuses on the powerless, power-hungry, and power-mongers. UP.

Noam Chomsky''s prolific writings have made him one of the most-quoted educators in history-the only living writer on a most-cited list that includes Plato, Shakespeare, and Freud. Yet until now, no book has systematically offered Chomsky''s influential writings on education. In Chomsky on MisEducation, Noam Chomsky encourages a larger understanding of our educational needs, starting with the changing role of schools today, and broadening our view of new models of public education. Chomsky weaves global technological change and the primacy of responsible media with the democratic role of schools and higher education. A truly democratic society, he argues, cannot thrive in a rapidly changing world unless our approach to education-formal and otherwise-is dramatically reformed. Chomsky''s critique of how our current educational system "miseducates" students-and his prescriptions for change-are essential reading for teachers, parents, school administrators, activists, and anyone concerned about the future.

In On Nature and Language Noam Chomsky develops his thinking on the relation between language, mind, and brain, integrating current research in linguistics into the burgeoning field of neuroscience. Following a lucid introduction is a penetrating interview with Chomsky, in which he provides the clearest and most elegant introduction to current theory available. It makes his Minimalist Program accessible to all. The volume concludes with an essay on the role of intellectuals in society and government. A significant landmark in the development of linguistic theory, On Nature and Language will be welcomed by students and researchers in theoretical linguistics, neurolinguistics, cognitive science and politics, as well as anyone interested in the development of Chomsky''s thought. Noam Chomsky is Professor of Linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Chomsky has written and lectured extensively on philosophy, intellectual history, and international affairs. His works include The Architecture of Language, Aspects of the Theory of Syntax; Cartesian Linguistics; Language and Mind; American Power and the New Mandarins; At War with Asia; For Reasons of State; Peace in the Middle East? Reflections on Language; Rules and Representations; The Culture of Terrorism; Rethinking Camelot; JFKm the Vietnam War and US Political Culture; World Orders, Old and New and The Common Good.

The theoretical issues raised in The Sound Pattern of English continue to be critical to current phonology, and in many instances the solutions proposed by Chomsky and Halle have yet to be improved upon. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

A collection of eleven conversations in which American philosopher and activist Noam Chomsky and Mexican-based professor of sociology Heinz Dieterich discuss key events in the politics and history of Latin America.

The renowned linguist and political activist offers penetrating reflections on language, human nature, and foreign policy in this essay collection. From linguistics to the Middle East; foreign affairs to the role of the media; and intellectual responsibility to the situation in East Timor, Noam Chomsky offers a wide-ranging exploration of the issues and ideas that have concerned him most deeply throughout his distinguished career. These essays are drawn from a series of lectures Chomsky gave in Australia in 1995, under the auspices of the East Timor Relief Association. Examining the interplay between language, human nature and foreign policy, Powers and Prospects provides a scathing critique of government policy orthodoxy. Moving beyond criticism of the status quo, Chomsky then outlines other paths that can lead to better understanding and more constructive action.

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! In his first major book on the subject of income inequality, Noam Chomsky skewers the fundamental tenets of neoliberalism and casts a clear, cold, patient eye on the economic facts of life. What are the ten principles of concentration of wealth and power at work in America today? They''re simple enough: reduce democracy, shape ideology, redesign the economy, shift the burden onto the poor and middle classes, attack the solidarity of the people, let special interests run the regulators, engineer election results, use fear and the power of the state to keep the rabble in line, manufacture consent, marginalize the population. In Requiem for the American Dream, Chomsky devotes a chapter to each of these ten principles, and adds readings from some of the core texts that have influenced his thinking to bolster his argument. To create Requiem for the American Dream, Chomsky and his editors, the filmmakers Peter Hutchison, Kelly Nyks, and Jared P. Scott, spent countless hours together over the course of five years, from 2011 to 2016. After the release of the film version, Chomsky and the editors returned to the many hours of tape and transcript and created a document that included three times as much text as was used in the film. The book that has resulted is nonetheless arguably the most succinct and tightly woven of Chomsky''s long career, a beautiful vessel--including old-fashioned ligatures in the typeface--in which to carry Chomsky''s bold and uncompromising vision, his perspective on the economic reality and its impact on our political and moral well-being as a nation. "During the Great Depression, which I''m old enough to remember, it was bad–much worse subjectively than today. But there was a sense that we''ll get out of this somehow, an expectation that things were going to get better . . ." —from Requiem for the American Dream

Noam Chomsky’s backpocket classic on wartime propaganda and opinion control begins by asserting two models of democracy—one in which the public actively participates, and one in which the public is manipulated and controlled. According to Chomsky, "propaganda is to democracy as the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state," and the mass media is the primary vehicle for delivering propaganda in the United States. From an examination of how Woodrow Wilson’s Creel Commission "succeeded, within six months, in turning a pacifist population into a hysterical, war-mongering population," to Bush Sr.''s war on Iraq, Chomsky examines how the mass media and public relations industries have been used as propaganda to generate public support for going to war. Chomsky further touches on how the modern public relations industry has been influenced by Walter Lippmann’s theory of "spectator democracy," in which the public is seen as a "bewildered herd" that needs to be directed, not empowered; and how the public relations industry in the United States focuses on "controlling the public mind," and not on informing it. Media Control is an invaluable primer on the secret workings of disinformation in democratic societies.

Berwick and Chomsky draw on recent developments in linguistic theory to offer an evolutionary account of language and humans'' remarkable, species-specific ability to acquire it. “A loosely connected collection of four essays that will fascinate anyone interested in the extraordinary phenomenon of language.” —New York Review of Books We are born crying, but those cries signal the first stirring of language. Within a year or so, infants master the sound system of their language; a few years after that, they are engaging in conversations. This remarkable, species-specific ability to acquire any human language—“the language faculty”—raises important biological questions about language, including how it has evolved. This book by two distinguished scholars—a computer scientist and a linguist—addresses the enduring question of the evolution of language. Robert Berwick and Noam Chomsky explain that until recently the evolutionary question could not be properly posed, because we did not have a clear idea of how to define “language” and therefore what it was that had evolved. But since the Minimalist Program, developed by Chomsky and others, we know the key ingredients of language and can put together an account of the evolution of human language and what distinguishes us from all other animals. Berwick and Chomsky discuss the biolinguistic perspective on language, which views language as a particular object of the biological world; the computational efficiency of language as a system of thought and understanding; the tension between Darwin''s idea of gradual change and our contemporary understanding about evolutionary change and language; and evidence from nonhuman animals, in particular vocal learning in songbirds.

Analyzes U.S. policy in Latin America, Asia, and Africa media and the role of the media in misreporting these policies.

"Attempts to indentify the fundamental concepts of language, argues that the study of language reveals hidden facts about the mind, and looks at the impact of propaganda".

The distinguished linguist and controversial political critic combines both aspects of his life and work in this wide-ranging and informative discussion that presents his political, moral, and linguistic views on current issues.

Originally delivered in 1971 as the first Cambridge lectures in memory of Bertrand Russell, Problems of Knowledge and Freedom is an erudite and cogent synthesis of Noam Chomsky''s moral philosophy, linguistic analysis, and emergent political critique of America''s war in Vietnam. In the first half of this wide-ranging work, Chomsky takes up Russell''s lifelong search for the empirical principles of human understanding, in a philosophical overview referencing Hume, Leibniz, Wittgenstein, and others. In the following half, aptly-titled "On Changing the World," Chomsky applies these concepts to the issues that would remain the focus of his increasingly political work of the period. These include the war in Indochina and the Cold War ideology that supported it, the centralization of U.S. decision-making in the Pentagon and the growing influence of multinational corporations in those circles, the politicization of American universities in the post-World War II years, along with his reflections on the Cuban missile crisis and the mass liberation movements of the era. This is the third in a series of Chomsky''s early political books reissued by The New Press. The others are American Power and the New Mandarins and For Reasons of State. Book jacket.

American Foreign Policy In The Post Cold War Era

A fascinating analysis of human language and its influence on other disciplines by one of the nation''s most respected linguists. Chomsky is also the author of What Uncle Sam Really Wants and The Prosperous Few and the Restless Many (15,000 copies sold).

Based on a composite of interviews conducted in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, Chomsky, one of America''s most esteemed and influential radical thinkers, uses his impeccable knowledge of globalisation and US foreign policy in the Middle East to shed light on Osama bin Laden and the long-term implications of America''s military attacks abroad. Speaking out against responding to violence with violence, as such tactics only succeed in undermining democracy in any meaningful form, he demands policies of a more long-term, humane and honorable nature.

La Palestine est à bien des égards emblématique de ce qui ne tourne pas rond dans le monde et, pour les militants de la justice sociale, le besoin de renouveler le débat et le vocabulaire sur cette question découle avant tout des changements importants qui se sont produits dans la région ces dernières années. Car, sur le terrain, un nouvel Etat a vu le jour : le Grand Israël. Tandis que les Palestiniens de Cisjordanie sont encore humiliés quotidiennement aux postes de contrôle, incarcérés sans procès, dépossédés de leurs terres, incapables de se déplacer d''une ville à l''autre en raison des murs érigés autour de leurs maisons, la population de Gaza, assiégée dans la plus grande prison à ciel ouvert de la planète, est régulièrement soumise à un cocktail barbare de bombardements et de tirs de l''armée israélienne qui, selon une horrible expression de ses haut-gradés, dit ainsi " tondre le gazon ", avec l''accord tacite de la communauté internationale. Et c''est sans compter les citoyens palestiniens d''Israël qui font face à une nouvelle série de lois racistes qui bafouent leurs droits les plus élémentaires ainsi que les millions de réfugiés palestiniens qui continuent à croupir dans des camps. Dans cet ouvrage rédigé en partie dans le feu de l''action, à l''été 2014, en pleine guerre de Gaza, Noam Chomsky, Ilan Pappé et Frank Barat mènent une longue conversation qu''ils nous présentent en trois parties : le passé, où ils ont concentré leur attention sur le sionisme en tant que phénomène historique ; le présent, où ils se sont questionné sur la pertinence d''appliquer le modèle de l''apartheid à Israël et sur l''efficacité de la campagne Boycott, désinvestissement et sanctions (BDS) en tant que stratégie de solidarité avec le peuple palestinien ; et l''avenir, où ils ont mis en balance la solution à deux Etats et celle à un Etat. Pour eux, le problème palestinien se résume depuis le début à un cas patent de colonialisme et de dépossession, même si on préfère le traiter comme une affaire complexe difficile à comprendre et, plus encore, à résoudre. Or, tout indique qu''Israël persistera dans ses politiques racistes, ultracapitalistes et expansionnistes.