Chronicles of Dissent: Interviews with David Barsamian [Paperback]

Noam Chomsky (Author), David Barsamian (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2002

An Accessible Overview of Noam Chomsky's Political Thought.

Chomsky feels the abuses, cruelty and hypocrisies of power more intensely than anyone I know. It's a state of continual alertness. Often, after I've glanced at a story in the paper and skipped rapidly over the familiar rubble of falsification, a week or two later will drop into my mailbox a photocopy of that same story marked up by Chomsky, with sentences underlined and a phrase or two in the margin etched deep into the paper by an angry pen.

What Chomsky offers is a coherent "big picture," buttressed by the data of a thousand smaller pictures and discrete theaters of conflict, struggle and oppression.... For hundreds of thousands of people--over the years, he must have spoken to more American students than any person alive--Chomsky has offered the assurance, the intellectual and moral authority, that there is another way of looking at things. In this vital function he stands in the same relationship to his audience as did a philosopher he admires greatly, Bertrand Russell.

-Alexander Cockburn, from his introduction "Excavating the Truth"

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

These interviews with Chomsky, conducted between 1984 and 1991, focus almost exclusively on the noted linguist's controversial political views. This volume is thus a good introduction to his political thought for those who are intimidated by his densely argued, exhaustively footnoted essays and books. The discussions range all over world history, from Columbus to the Gulf War, but they return repeatedly to certain pet topics--Israel as U.S. client-state, the perversion of language by propaganda, the pervasiveness of American imperialist designs and the complicity of a large sector of the intelligentsia and media in those machinations. By its very nature, the book is a bit repetitive, and Chomsky's wit, though considerable, runs toward a sarcasm that becomes wearying over nearly 400 pages. What sets this book apart from Chomsky's other writings are the passages in which he relates his political ideas to his childhood and youth in New York and Philadelphia--a refreshing dip into autobiography by an otherwise impersonal observer.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Noam Chomsky is Institute Professor of Linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is the author of many books on U.S. foreign policy.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Common Courage Press (July 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0962883883
• ISBN-13: 978-0962883880
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,322,967 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The clearest overview of Chomsky's thoughts", July 9, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Oakland CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chronicles of Dissent: Interviews with David Barsamian (Paperback)

Chronicles of Dissent is an excellent way for people to get familiar with the views of Noam Chomsky. In this collection of interviews, Chomsky is relaxed and brings his analysis down a notch to "make it plain" for the average person. Covering a wide array if issues (The Middle East, US Foreign Policy, The UN, and The Propaganda System) Chomsky strips away the myths of American Democracy. He explains why he calls the PBS series on Vietnam "cheap propaganda and vulgar nonsense." The interviewer, David Barsamian, hardly ever challenges Chomsky, but this forum allows him to take the ball and run with it. A pefect book for those unfamiliar with this great mind.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Intro to Chomsky, February 25, 2002

By 

Mr. Mark (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chronicles of Dissent: Interviews with David Barsamian (Paperback)

I found this book more-or-less by accident, not realizing just what I was getting into. I was in 2nd year university I believe, and found this name Chomsky came up on many of the topical searches I would look up at the university library, with evocative (provocative?!?) titles like "deterring Democracy" "the Washington Connection and Third World Fascism" etc... I was curious. I have always been a seeker of truth, and have always been skeptical of power and its abuses and the fact that many, if not most, of the people I knew shared this scepticism, yet media never talked about what to all of us was plainly obvious. I actually did not take any of Chomsky's books out (so many it seemed kind of overwhelming), but I found one in a bookstore, chronicles of dissent. Interviews. Seemed like a good introduction. Talked about the Gulf war which was just ended and which I was really keen on learning more about. This event really started to make me wonder what in the hell was wrong with the world.

I bought it for myself as a Christmas gift. I read it in a few days. I was so fascinated that someone could have such insight, such a good memory for history, economics, such a way of looking at events and facts from different angles than are normally presented. Much of what he said summed up (much more articulately of course) what had been going through my head over the past few formative years. Why doesn't everyone know about and read this guy I wondered. You find out pretty quickly after discovering Chomsky that he certainly has his share of detractors (read some of the reviews of recent works ie 9/11 for example!) So I occasionally read his detractors as well, and I must say they are seldom as convincing as he is, and he stands on a much higher moral ground than most (all?) of them, a voice of sanity in a wilderness of deception, propaganda and ideology. They seem to mostly repeat US government propaganda and try to call Chomsky an apologist for genocide, which is one of the biggest jokes I can imagine. Chomsky is merciless in his defense of real freedom, and in his denunciation of tyranny. A common thread in all he says and writes is that we (the west) must judge ourselves with the same (even higher he argues) standards as we judge our enemies, but that in no instance is this ever done by the intelligentsia community, becoming basically apologists for state atrocities and violence. This seems so obvious to me, yet there are several lunatics out there who criticise (even lambaste) him for suggesting that our crimes are anywhere near as significant as "theirs" (whoever the "them" of the month happens to be) He can write a meticulously well documented book on the effects of American intervention in Vietnam (ie many many corpses), and the some wacko criticises him for not talking about all of communist atrocities in the world even though that is not the topic of his book! His point is that communist atrocities are very well documented (occasionally fabricated even!) as they are the official enemy. He chooses to focus his attention on atrocties carried out by his own government, something he feels his words and actions may be able to influence.

Noam Chomsky is feared as he exposes the truth, and something I have learned since nearly 10 years ago when I first read this book (a good reference to have on hand to this day I might add), is that people are terrified of the truth. They would rather believe government propaganda and that governments are looking out for their best interests rather than the truths which Chomsky exposes in great detail in the piles of political books he has written. This series of interviews provides a good intro, and is easier to read than his heavily footnoted books, which can be admittedly difficult to slog through (though definitely worth it as well) and brings up points that are found in more detail in his books for the more interested, or people skeptical of his interviews (something he encourages by the way). Highly recommended to anyone who is a skeptic.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Orwell + Bertrand Russell = Chomsky, February 12, 2003

By 

"olly_aginous" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chronicles of Dissent: Interviews with David Barsamian (Paperback)

In order ro get a real flavour of this book i would invite the reader to check out the sample pages provided - ...
The first thing that must be said is that the purpose of the interviews is to get Chomsky to expand on and develop some of the thinking that informs his work. Thus whereas his work is heavy with empirical detail, the interview format permits more reflective and general observations. The reader (assumed to be basically sympathetic to Chomsky's work) is here permited to se some of the ideas and theoretical arguments which underlie and arise from the work. Any book, of course, presupposes a certian readership - that is pretty much a truism - so there is nothing wrong with assuming a basically sympathetic readership in this case. I mention this, only because any of you out there utterly antipathetic to Chomsky and expecting the interviewer to (attempt to) refute the vernerable old chap will be doubtless disappointed. But of course, I'm being silly, because those of you utterly opposed to Chomsky and disamissive of his work won't of course be wasting your time reading this book - or this review. Those of you, by contrast, with a serious interest in Chomsky's work but looking for lots of empirical data would be best off looking at some of his other stuff first. Chomsky provides immense evidence for each and everyone of his propositions.