The Chomsky Trilogy: Secrets, Lies & Democracy/The Prosperous Few & the Restless Many/What Uncle Sam Really Wants

by Noam Chomsky

The Real Story Series is based on a simple idea--political books don't have to be boring. Short, well-written and to the point, Real Story books are meant to be read. In these fact-filled, illusion-shattering masterpieces, the man the "New York Times" called "arguably the most important intellectual alive," explains why "what the public wants is called 'politically unrealistic.' Translated into English, that means power and privilege are opposed to it." Normally somewhat difficult to read, Chomsky is at his most accessible in his speeches and interviews, and that's what these books are compiled from. Here are some examples of what he has to tell In 1970, about 90% of international capital was used for trade and long-term investment-more or less productive things--and 10% reserved for speculation. By 1990, those figures were reversed. Haiti, a starving island, is exporting food to the U.S.--about 35 times as much under Clinton as under Bush. The gap between how much income is held by the richest and poorest 20? has increased dramatically over the past 30 years--about double for rich vs. poor countries and far more for rich vs. poor people.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Philosophy, History

333 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1995

About the author

Avram Noam Chomsky is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science. He is a laureate professor of linguistics at the University of Arizona and an institute professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Among the most cited living authors, Chomsky has written more than 150 books on topics such as linguistics, war, and politics. In addition to his work in linguistics, since the 1960s Chomsky has been an influential voice on the American left as a consistent critic of U.S. foreign policy, contemporary capitalism, and corporate influence on political institutions and the media.
Born to Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants (his father was William Chomsky) in Philadelphia, Chomsky developed an early interest in anarchism from alternative bookstores in New York City. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania. During his postgraduate work in the Harvard Society of Fellows, Chomsky developed the theory of transformational grammar for which he earned his doctorate in 1955. That year he began teaching at MIT, and in 1957 emerged as a significant figure in linguistics with his landmark work Syntactic Structures, which played a major role in remodeling the study of language. From 1958 to 1959 Chomsky was a National Science Foundation fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study. He created or co-created the universal grammar theory, the generative grammar theory, the Chomsky hierarchy, and the minimalist program. Chomsky also played a pivotal role in the decline of linguistic behaviorism, and was particularly critical of the work of B.F. Skinner.
An outspoken opponent of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, which he saw as an act of American imperialism, in 1967 Chomsky rose to national attention for his anti-war essay "The Responsibility of Intellectuals". Becoming associated with the New Left, he was arrested multiple times for his activism and placed on President Richard M. Nixon's list of political opponents. While expanding his work in linguistics over subsequent decades, he also became involved in the linguistics wars. In collaboration with Edward S. Herman, Chomsky later articulated the propaganda model of media criticism in Manufacturing Consent, and worked to expose the Indonesian occupation of East Timor. His defense of unconditional freedom of speech, including that of Holocaust denial, generated significant controversy in the Faurisson affair of the 1980s. Chomsky's commentary on the Cambodian genocide and the Bosnian genocide also generated controversy. Since retiring from active teaching at MIT, he has continued his vocal political activism, including opposing the 2003 invasion of Iraq and supporting the Occupy movement. An anti-Zionist, Chomsky considers Israel's treatment of Palestinians to be worse than South African–style apartheid, and criticizes U.S. support for Israel.
Chomsky is widely recognized as having helped to spark the cognitive revolution in the human sciences, contributing to the development of a new cognitivistic framework for the study of language and the mind. Chomsky remains a leading critic of U.S. foreign policy, contemporary capitalism, U.S. involvement and Israel's role in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and mass media. Chomsky and his ideas are highly influential in the anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist movements. Since 2017, he has been Agnese Helms Haury Chair in the Agnese Nelms Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice at the University of Arizona.

Reviews

[Matteo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick, easy to read - a primer on why the world is the way that it is and on Chomsky's analysis of it.
The kind of book(s) you can keep in your back pocket to read on the bus...

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

My introduction to Chomsky came in an English class that was otherwise pretty forgettable. Despite being a history major in an excellent, brutally honest program, there was a lot of cultural baggage we never covered. Chomsky rocks my world.

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little frustrating. I'm incredibly sympathetic to Chomsky and agree with him on most things. But the format of this book (edited transcripts of various interviews) means that he is making a lot of factual assertions with zero backup, so that just sets off the skeptic in me. I don't necessarily doubt that he could produce citations for these things, but they're not here in the book so that makes me question everything. Granted I am probably not the audience for this book, where the editor explicitly states that the goal is to simplify political theory and make it more accessible to the average person - a billion footnotes would be at odds with that goal, obviously. I probably just need to read Chomsky's many other works that are pitched to an audience that is a bit more academic...

[Beverley Sylvester · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some notes, if you choose to read this:

1. Chomsky is clearly intelligent, knowledgeable, and a gifted rhetorician. This makes it somewhat difficult to separate historical facts from his opinions. Make sure you are careful of this.

2. In other places, Chomsky is labelled as a socialist. This is by his definition of socialism, not the popularly used and understood definition of socialism (he discusses this in What Uncle Sam Really Wants).

Personally, I found these texts informative and compelling. I disagree with some of his opinions and agree with others. I appreciate Chomsky's inclusion of examples and sources.

[Yaotl Altan · Rating 5 out of 5]

El más grande intelectual vivo de EUA nos explica cómo una élite despoja a la mayoría de la riqueza generada por esta, además de las falacias de la democracia representativa.

Ojalá Chomsky viva como 7600 años más.

[ميساوي missaoui missaoui]

bad image for american foreign policy ;but america without this policy became nothing!