Noam Chomsky

Here, renowned intellectual activist and MIT linguistics professor Noam Chomsky describes—with typically stern, pragmatic reasoning and heavy use of footnotes—the recent history of U.S. foreign policy, or “imperial grand strategy.” Starting with the Cuban Missile Crisis, he illustrates why the United States is viewed as a rogue, terrorist nation (as defined by our own legal code) with regard to our policies in Cuba, Central America, Vietnam and much of the Middle East. Deeply critical of our unquestioning media and America’s contempt for international law, Chomsky paints the portrait of a lone superpower using unprecedented military might to rule the world and drawing parallels with 19th-century Britain. Whether you believe Chomsky is a master of “looking-glass politics” or a lonely voice of reason, it’s difficult to refute him as a major scholarly resource. As he notes, “Recognition that control of opinion is the foundation of government, from the most despotic to the most free, goes back at least to Hume. … [But] It is far more important in the most free societies, where obedience cannot be maintained by the lash.”