The Essential Chomsky (New Press Essential)

This is a collection of some of Chomsky's most influential essays and articles, covering a wide range of topics from the role of intellectuals in the US, US foreign policy, Israel/Palestine, Anarchism, social movements, and a sampling of his linguistics work. Chomsky is one of the most profound and insightful social critics of our time, and this is a decent overview of his work. Since some of the essays are excerpts of chapters in his various books, some readers familiar with Chomsky may find it repetitive. For someone completely new to Chomsky, I would recommend "Understanding Power" as a much more comprehensive, readable place to start.

Mr. Chomsky is brilliant, blindingly articulate, and deserves an immense amount of attention and respect, but for my money any volume entitled Essential Chomsky should strike a much more even balance between his linguistic work and political work. I do not feel that this book is sufficiently representative of the likelihood that the evolution of language in primates, the impact of language on the social strucures of Homo Sapiens, and the monkey politics of our present day American condition are essentially all 'of a piece' in this great intellect. That's my opinion, anyway...

Spanning several decades, this collection of articles is a fair representation of the opinions of someone who is responsible for instigating a lot of research into language theory as well as provoking many into political debate and action. A writer, researcher, political activist, or teacher does not have to always be right in order for them to be judged as effective, and Noam Chomsky is right about issues just as often as he is wrong. He is best when he is encouraging his readers to be skeptical, and given the history of governments one can only approach their analysis from the standpoint of extreme skepticism. No utterance, document (official or unofficial) or decree coming from any government in the world should be believed without in-depth analysis and painstaking research. Time constraints often put a damper on the level of analysis that is required; with the immediate consequence that one must withhold judgment on sometimes very important matters. This makes authors such as Chomsky valuable, in that they summarize events and histories that enable those interested to make better use of their time. Chomsky can be very loose with facts, as can been seen by perusing some of the articles in this book. For example, when discussing the (illegal and immoral) invasion of East Timor by Indonesia, he states that the United States supplied 90 percent of arms used, but he does not give a reference for this assertion. And in the same article, he refers to an "outstanding Australian specialist" on East Timor describing Fretlin, the political party at the time of the invasion, as "populist Catholic". Chomsky often quotes individuals that he deems as expert in a subject, but he never gives objective criteria for what constitutes an expert. Readers who are not intimidated by authority demand evidence be given for assertions, and it matters not to what degree the person who makes these assertions is held in esteem. But the greatest contribution that Chomsky has made, and one that is detailed in the article on the responsibility of intellectuals, is that he eloquently speaks out for the joining of actions and words. Too often intellectuals, from both the "right" and the "left", approach critical analysis from the comfort and serenity of the academic armchair. Chomsky encourages active involvement, and understands that a large degree of stoicism and perseverance may be required if one is to make changes in social hierarchies, or even perhaps to dissolve these hierarchies entirely. For this reason Chomsky is not a conservative, for he is not afraid to bring about change in very short periods of time. But he is also not afraid to take on liberals such as John F. Kennedy, who he clearly deplores as is evident by reading some of the articles in this book. No public or governmental figure or nation state is sacred for Chomsky. Given his current age, Chomsky may be leaving us soon. Some will perhaps rejoice, but even those who strongly disagree with him will certainly miss him, for he gave them incentive to better formulate their own positions and make them distinctive from his. One cannot have a better testament to one's existence than the encouragement of critical thinking.

Great insights. Lots to ponder.

There are many brilliant insights in this compendium. This should become a classic resource for poli-sci courses. I highly recommend this.

written with uncommon eloquence, the research and the lucidity of the arguments is compelling.

My father loves audio books, especially professora and world news , politics. He admires and enjoys all of Chomskeys books!

It's not fair of me to knock the importance of Chomsky but that's what averaging reviews will do. The fact it this review is simply that the work was compiled and presented in such a profoundly dry and clinical manner that it was almost unbearable to a non-linguist. Really this is me calling out Audible/Amazon for picking someone more boring than Ben Stein to read the audiobook. I literally used it to fall asleep at night.

I appreciate the good condition of the book and prompt delivery. I was reading this book on a Tokyo subway one day and someone talked to me and shared his thought on Chomsky. It is nice how the book can create a sharing culture of knowledge.

An interesting read

If I was to chose only one book of Chomsky that i would bring with me on an deserted island, i would chose Understanding Power, but this would be my second choice without doubt. A great overview of the breadth of Chomsky's thinking.

No matter what your political views may be, you will be enlightened reading Chomsky.

Compact. Must need new glasses. But if your a Chomsky fan. You must have it.