Interventions

By Noam Chomsky

Book Overview

Noam Chomsky says that the freedom to challenge power is not just an opportunity, it's a responsibility. For the past several years Chomsky has been writing essays for The New York Times Syndicate to do just that: challenge power and expose the global consequences of U.S. policy and military actions worldwide. Interventions is a collection of these essays, revised and updated with notes by the author.

While Chomsky's New York Times Syndicate writings are widely published around the world, they have rarely been printed in major U.S. media; none have been published in the New York Times.

Concise and fiercely argued, Interventions covers the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the Bush presidency, Israel and Palestine, national security, the escalating threat of nuclear warfare and more. A powerful and accessible new book from one of America's foremost political intellectuals and dissidents.

"Interventions offers over forty of Chomsky's columns; insightful, crisp and well-researched pieces on news events of the day. From 9/11 to the Iraq War, from the 'non-crisis' of social security to the leveling of Lebanon, Chomsky provides informed opinion and critical analysis."--Mumia Abu-Jamal

"Chomsky is a global phenomenon . . . perhaps the most widely read voice on foreign policy on the planet."--New York Times Book Review

"With relentless logic, Chomsky bids us to listen closely to what our leaders tell us--and to discern what they are leaving out . . . Agree with him or not, we lose out by not listening."--Business Weekly

Noam Chomsky has taught linguistics and philosophy at MIT for more than fifty years. He is a critically-acclaimed author of numerous books, including Hegemony or Survival, Imperial Ambitions, Failed States, Manufacturing Consent, and Media Control and Failed States.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0872864839
• ISBN13: 9780872864832
• Release Date: July 2007
• Publisher: City Lights Books
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Recommended for new and old readers of Chomsky

This is a great collection of essays regarding recent actions of US foreign policy. A great book to read on the subway, because the essays are very short, only 4-7 pages per. So if you, like myself, are familiar with Classic Chomsky, then get it anyway because these are new essays on very recent events, none of them published in the US before. I should remind you here that Chomsky is the worlds leading political commentator, and is said to be quoted more often than the Bible, though unsuprisingly, he is barely known (and barely published) in the US. Insert ironic comment about the "liberal media" here. Chomsky's wry, dry sense of humor and penetrating insight will warm your heart and your mind. His writings are like the first gulp of a ice-cold bottle of water after you have hiked through the city heat for hours: deeply refreshing and very neccessary. The book's best essay is unquestionably "The great soul of power". Even if you have seen him speak, listened to recordings, read all/most of his political books, you would be missing an excellent essay here if you were to pass up this book. If you are the type of person who habitually reads only halfway into books before abandoning them, just start with this essay, then go to the beginning.

Hard-hitting little gems

"Interventions" is unusual in some respects. It's a collection of op ed pieces that Chomsky started writing shortly after 9/11. Believe it or not, these pieces were distributed worldwide by the New York Times Syndicate, a branch of the NYT publishing enterprise. Very few U.S. newspapers picked them up (that's all too familiar) but they were probably widely disseminated elsewhere in the world. They span the years 2002-2007 and have been revised and collected now in one paperback volume, with new footnotes freshly added on the occasion of this republication. Even the oldest of these pieces don't feel dated. As always, Chomsky digs deep underneath the surface and extracts principles of U.S. foreign policy that haven't changed in many years. The essays are short pieces of around 1,000 words, or 4 pages each, a total of 44, and they make for very good reading. Perhaps Chomsky was more focussed and less rambling than usual because of the need for concision, or perhaps it's simply the brevity of these pieces that makes them so effective. Whatever it is that sets these pieces apart, they've had quite an impact on me: I tend to walk around slightly stunned after reading each piece, unable to take my mind off it, and I'm able to remember these pieces so much better than a lot of my other Chomsky reading. Perhaps this extra impact has to do with the fact that the number of facts and connections and basic principles uncovered by Chomsky in each essay is digestable. The complexity of the analysis doesn't go beyond what you can absorb in one setting. Each piece remains fresh in your mind and has quite an emotional impact, such as disbelief, outrage, sadness, or feeling sick to your stomach. There is a crying need for making Chomsky more accessible, i.e. for transforming his standard mode of political analysis and commentary in such a way that it can be assimilated more easily by someone who is not a Chomsky himself. The Chomsky movies (Manufacturing Consent, Rebel Without a Pause) don't really succeed in that. The "Understanding Power" anthology, in book form and with massive annotations on the Internet, also had this ambition. It is admirable but the book doesn't quite succeed in this either. The form of the concise op ed in this book and the dialog form in the recent book Chomsky & Achcar "Perilous Power" take a different tack on presenting Chomsky's political thinking. They succeed better in making Chomsky accessible and exciting than many other attempts. He should publish more often in these two formats.

Chomsky Short and Sweet

This is a collection of op-ed articles Chomsky wrote for the New York Times Sydicate from 2002 through 2006. They were not widely published in the United States save for a few regional papers, but received broader exposure overseas. Interventions is the first collection of these 44 op-eds of about 1000 words each. First, regardless of what one may think of Chomsky's views, it is a testament to the author that he would have all of his columns over a 4 year period bound into chronological order, intending them to be read one after the next. They are a model of self consistancy, and their theses rarely, if ever, damaged by new information. The common thread between all of the pieces in this collection is the same as Chomsky's central thesis: That if the United States, and more broadly, the entire western world, were to turn the same critical, rational eye on our own actions that we rightfully turn on the actions of other nations, we would see ourselves moving against the interests of freedom, democracy, human rights, and even the survival of the species in favor of maintaining our political and economic dominance in the world. Constrained by concision, because these were op-eds, the entire collection is remarkably easy to digest. A bit Chomsky-lite, but not lacking any of the incisive observation and remarkable research that Chomsky's readers turn to him for.

Chomsky's best of the best that we missed.

If you regularly read Chomsky's commentaries that were published outside of the US and threw his insightful pieces away, you better buy this book right away. Or if you never read foreign media sources and wanted to know what Chomsky wrote over the years, you'll sure find this book extremely useful. Note: These op-eds gathered for the first time in this book are not that Americans regularly have the chance to read. But people in other countries do. "Interventions" offers some of Chomsky's best of the best, crisp and intellectually amazing pieces that he wrote on topics ranging From 9-11 to the Iraq War, the Bush presidency, Israel and Palestine, national security, the escalating threat of nuclear warfare, and more, including topics from the 'non-crisis' of social security to the leveling of Lebanon. Ever since Chomsky became a 'global phenomenon', his writings have been preserved by many as pure 'masterpieces' that may be referenced by future generations. When history digs deeper into the present conflicts, Chomsky's pieces will sure find a place in the hands of those researchers and "Interventions" will be one of those collectibles that people will be raving about. N.Sivakumar. Author of: America Misunderstood: What a Second Bush Victory Meant to the Rest of the World