Power and Terror: Post-9/11 Talks and Interviews [Paperback]

Noam Chomsky (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 4, 2003

Power and Terror, Noam Chomsky's highly anticipated follow-up to 9-11, is drawn from a series of public talks that Chomsky gave during the spring of 2002, as well as a lengthy unpublished interview. It presents Chomsky's latest thinking on terrorism, U.S. foreign policy, and alternatives to militarism and violence as solutions to the world's problems. Chomsky challenges the United States to apply to its own actions the moral standards it demands of others, and arrives at a surprisingly optimistic conclusion rooted in his faith in the power of an informed public.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Judged in terms of the power, range, novelty, and influence of his thought, Noam Chomsky is arguably the most important intellectual alive. -- The New York Times On the one hand we have the established media, the respectable community of foreign affairs analysts, the government - on the other, Noam Chomsky. -- The Nation For Chomsky, the 'official doctrine' ... of military intervention to safeguard human rights is as much a sham as the 'New World Order' trumpeted during the Gulf War.' -- The Guardian --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Noam Chomsky is a professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author most recently of Hegemony or Survival, 9/11, and Power and Terror.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Seven Stories Press (February 4, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1583225900
• ISBN-13: 978-1583225905
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #826,980 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Noam Chomsky is Institute Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston. A member of the American Academy of Science, he has published widely in both linguistics and current affairs. His books include At War with Asia, Towards a New Cold War, Fateful Triangle: The U. S., Israel and the Palestinians, Necessary Illusions, Hegemony or Survival, Deterring Democracy, Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy and Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars To the point, March 31, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Power and Terror: Post-9/11 Talks and Interviews (Paperback)

This is a quick read and one that is worth the few hours or so that it takes to read the entire book. Mr Chomsky gets his points across directly and clearly. He is able to show why we are having problems in the Middle east, why the people there do not trust us and why we are taking the action that we have taken. I would have liked a few more footnotes. He mentions a few things that he assumes the read is already aware of; however, it would have been nice to have a few more details. This is a very good book in setting the record straight. Once you have finished this book please get another one of his and go through it. Everything that he writes (or says since most of this one is from various talks that he has given in 2002) is very "matter of fact" and to the point. It really makes you think.

28 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Noam Chomsky: Common Sense for Our Times, March 4, 2003

By 

Pen Name? "fluxus" - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Power and Terror: Post-9/11 Talks and Interviews (Paperback)

Power and Terror is a brief, but packed overview of U.S. and world power politics. Once again, Chomsky highlights the major issues and struggles of our times, referencing official sources, bringing out historical trends and applying massive amounts of common sense to cut through the rhetoric and the false dichotomies that so often pass for official debate. This is no holds barred classic Chomsky, an especially important contribution to the literature of the anti-war movement at this time. I consider this book to be much more detailed and better organized and more cohesive than "9-11." If you know who Noam Chomsky is, you don't need me to explain his politics here. If you have not yet read Noam Chomsky, there is no better place to start than with this book.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A window on the world outside conformism, April 6, 2003

By 

John Harpur (Trim, Meath, IRELAND) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Power and Terror: Post-9/11 Talks and Interviews (Paperback)

I received this book from a friend of mine in the US. It is a thoughtful critical collection of interviews and public lecture snippets that conveys again the great challenges that good men face when they confront hypocrisy. Chomsky is the quintessential Aristotelian moralist. All behaviour, all choices have moral implications.

In this collection, put together for the eponymous documentary, he presents an analysis, sometimes light admittedly, of the extraordinary moral dualism of the West, in particular the US. The division of good from bad is performed by acts of simple econonomic expediency. Foreign policy is no more than translocated domestic economic policies.

This is a bruising book for those clinging to naive assumptions about the civilising influences of Western democracy. The troubling question is: how can things be made different? As an aside after I finished this book, I bought Derrick Bell's testament to the importance of living an examined life. That certainly answers the question above.