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Noam Chomsky
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9-11: Was There an Alternative? (Open Media Book) Paperback – August 30, 2011

by Noam Chomsky (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 113 ratings
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In 9-11, published in November 2001 and arguably the single most influential post 9-11 book, internationally renowned thinker Noam Chomsky bridged the information gap around the World Trade Center attacks, cutting through the tangle of political opportunism, expedient patriotism, and general conformity that choked off American discourse in the months immediately following. Chomsky placed the attacks in context, marshaling his deep and nuanced knowledge of American foreign policy to trace the history of American political aggression--in the Middle East and throughout Latin America as well as in Indonesia, in Afghanistan, in India and Pakistan--at the same time warning against America’s increasing reliance on military rhetoric and violence in its response to the attacks, and making the critical point that the mainstream media and public intellectuals were failing to make: any escalation of violence as a response to violence will inevitably lead to further, and bloodier, attacks on innocents in America and around the world. This new edition of 9-11, published on the tenth anniversary of the attacks and featuring a new preface by Chomsky, reminds us that today, just as much as ten years ago, information and clarity remain our most valuable tools in the struggle to prevent future violence against the innocent, both at home and abroad.
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  1. Print length
    176 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Seven Stories Press
  4. Publication date
    August 30, 2011
  5. Dimensions
    5.24 x 0.49 x 7.98 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1609803434
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1609803438
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

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"9-11 was practically the only counter-narrative out there at a time when questions tended to be drowned out by a chorus, led by the entire United States Congress, of ‘God Bless America.’ ... it is possible that, if the United States goes the way of nineteenth-century Britain, Chomsky's interpretation will be the standard among historians a hundred years from now." —New Yorker

"A badly needed corrective to news coverage of the present-day 'war on terrorism.'" —Norman Solomon, San Francisco Chronicle 

"Every word of 9-11 is more relevant than ever." —Amnesty International Journal (Ireland)

"Chomsky laments that the U.S. government largely dismissed these human rights problems in its quest to 'secure our interests.' The invasion of Afghanistan was far from the first time NATO overran unstable civilian populations in the search for terrorists (Chomsky offers several examples in the book) and, as we now know, it was not the last." —Foreign Policy in Focus

About the Author

Born in Philadelphia in 1928, NOAM CHOMSKY is known throughout the world for his political writings, activism, and for for his groundbreaking work in linguistics. A professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1955, Chomsky gained recognition in academic circles for his theory of transformational grammar, which drew attention to the syntactic universality of all human languages. But it is as a critic of unending war, corporate control and neoliberalism that Chomsky has become one of the country’s most well known public intellectuals. The 1969 publication of American Power and the New Mandarins marked the beginning of Chomsky’s rigorous public criticism of American hegemony and its lieges. Since then, with his tireless scholarship and an unflagging sense of moral responsibility, he has become one of the most influential writers in the world. Chomsky is the author of Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (with Edward S. Herman), Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order, and over one hundred other books. To this day Noam Chomsky remains an active and uncompromising voice of dissent.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Seven Stories Press; Updated, Expanded, Anniversary edition (August 30, 2011)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 176 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1609803434
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1609803438
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.24 x 0.49 x 7.98 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 113 ratings

About the author

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Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky

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Avram Noam Chomsky (/ˈnoʊm ˈtʃɒmski/; born December 7, 1928) is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, logician, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes described as "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 has spent more than half a century at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he is Institute Professor Emeritus, and is the author of over 100 books on topics such as linguistics, war, politics, and mass media. Ideologically, he aligns with anarcho-syndicalism and libertarian socialism.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by https://www.flickr.com/photos/culturaargentina [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
113 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Christopher M. Whitman Jr.
5.0 out of 5 stars Still relevant after 10+ years
Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2012
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This book is of interview given by Chomsky after 9/11 about various aspects. He had a great opportunity after 9/11 to make an impact on the discourse and he did. Since Chomsky is a very fast researcher and writer, he was really able to get an alternative narrative out as soon as possible. He discusses the discourse of 9/11 and its impact on the world and the US. It is a short worthwhile book to pick up. If you like Chomsky, pick it up, rather straight forward.
6 people found this helpful
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Dr. Kola Olagboyega
5.0 out of 5 stars I love him and all his work - whether on theoretical ...
Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2014
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I am a Chomskian. I love him and all his work - whether on theoretical linguistics or on politics. I now have twenty different books of his and I still can't have enough of them. Long live Noam Chomsky. I wish him a very long and healthy life. May God bless you.
2 people found this helpful
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John C. Landon
4.0 out of 5 stars Chomsky's confusion over 9/11
Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2013
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This book is a puzzle, and it is hard to understand how Chomsky came to write it. After 9/11, within hours, a global group of critics and commentators began to question the official account. I recall reviewing a book here at Amazon on Sept 12, scratching my head: the Bin Laden gambit is phony. But the views of people like Chomsky on the left confused me for years, although my first instincts turned out to be right. It was clear from the start that something didn't add up. Chomsky's perspective, present in this book, is almost tailor-made to have opened the challenge to the crafted propaganda in effect from the start in the government and media. He is on the verge of seeing the real issue, but then turns around and demurs. Possibly it was too soon after the event to see what had happened. His book is all ready to go as an expose of the 9/11 conspiracy, and then a blank fire. Thus, he presents the correct background to the issue, such as the complicity of the US government in the creation of 'terrorists' and Bin Laden himself, but drifts off into a completely puzzling acceptance of the cover up. This pattern, we should note, has been present all along in Chomsky's refusal to consider the JFK assassination question, a tricky issue to be sure. To be fair, it took time for the skeptics to get their act together, and it was to be several years until figures like David Ray Griffin began to coordinate the evidence of covert conspiracy. Thierry Meyssan's The Big Lie came a year after 9/11, but didn't properly register with Americans. In fact, it was very hard to put the facts together, and it wasn't, perhaps, until the conclusive evidence that the Twin Towers couldn't have collapsed under the collision with jet planes that many were forced to go 'cold turkey' off the official story. The issue is important still if activists on the left defer to what seems now a false view. It sends a message that the perpetrators can get away with a real whopper. This book has frozen a whole generation of leftists into silence, or second string propaganda supporting a Budh, on 9/11. Whatever the case, after so many years, it is time for leftists to check out the real research here. The covert distortions of American democracy require seeing the reality of what happened on that eleventh day of September.
7 people found this helpful
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Cadet
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing
Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2013
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Could not be better. The author express an objective reflection on the September 11 events. I goes deeper explaining the foolishness and obsession of the american administration for war without thinking of back effects of its policy.
One person found this helpful
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Bonita Migliore
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it
Reviewed in the United States on January 9, 2014
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If you like Chomsky, this one doesn't disappoint. Always wanted to know the scenario of 911 going on behind the Whits House doors. Great information, great insight.
3 people found this helpful
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D.Z. Hays
3.0 out of 5 stars Brief Collection
Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2012
I have only read two books by Noam Chomsky: "What We Say Goes" and this one under review. Both books are actually not really books: "What We Say Goes" is an interview, and "9-11: Was There an Alternative?" is a collection of interviews and two brief essays. I read "What We Say Goes" almost exactly one year ago, and was not particularly impressed. After reading "9-11" I cannot help but conclude that Chomsky is a one-trick pony (although I do wish to familiarize myself with his writings on media and linguistics). What I mean by this is that Chomsky seems to have a comfort zone with only one rhetorical element. This element consists of bashing American foreign policy by reminding the reader of past injustices committed by prior policies. For example, a foreign policy to help facilitate democracy in Africa might be dismissed by Chomsky as ironic, since America did so much in the Cold War years to facilitate the spread of authoritarianism on this sad continent.

Repeat this ad infinitum, mutadis mutandis (i.e., Latin America, the Middle East, etc.) and you are left with Chomsky's interviews in "9-11". To put it more clearly: this collection contains 6 interviews (spanning roughly 90 pages in a 155 page book is horribly repetitive. The first essay, written shortly after Osama bin Laden was killed, is more of the same. Here Chomsky questions the necessity of killing bin Laden on the spot (I have only heard Chris Hedges share Chomsky's position on this matter, although I am sure there are/were others). After this brief and controversial remark Chomsky reminds us that the US facilitated the growth of Al-Qaeda. Only die-hard conservatives or hardcore Chomsky fanatics will find this provoking or stimulating. Nevertheless, the essay titled "Reflections on 9-11" is, in my opinion, the best part of the book, and helps to make up for its other lackluster pages.

Addendum: occasionally Chomsky shows that he is a good writer (it is hard to get a good sample with so many interviews, which are presumably oral...), but a passage on page 146 provoked me to write it down: "Of course, there will be those who demand silent obedience. We will expect that from the ultra-right, and anyone with a little familiarity with history will expect it from some left intellectuals as well, perhaps in an even more virulent form. But it is important not to be intimidated by hysterical ranting and lies and to keep as closely as one can to the course of truth and honesty and concern for the human consequences of what one does, or fails to do. All truisms, but worth bearing in mind. Beyond the truisms, we turn to specific questions, for inquiry and for action."
4 people found this helpful
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laylicious
5.0 out of 5 stars WHAT AN AMAZING LIL BOOK
Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2014
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arrived quickly...WHAT AN AMAZING LIL BOOK!...Fact upon fact & very informative...of course! you can expect nothing less from the wonderful & intelligent Mr. Chomsky
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doris sadler-davis
5.0 out of 5 stars a gift for my husband...
Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2014
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this man is a national treasure whether you agree with him or not, you will be blown away with the facts.
5 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

martha maclean
5.0 out of 5 stars arrived on time , condition good , as advertised, no problems
Reviewed in Canada on June 14, 2020
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i should be so lucky with all my purchases ,arrived on time , condition good , as advertised, no problems, will buy from again
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P. Barbara
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 22, 2017
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Item arrived on time and was as advertised
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papey74
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 27, 2016
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does what bought for
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Doug Becker
5.0 out of 5 stars Chomsky goes at it again
Reviewed in Canada on April 20, 2016
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Chomsky, (take him or leave him,) presents reasoning and rationale that can't be ignored.
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Shane Morley
4.0 out of 5 stars Chomsky at his best: objective, level-headed and surprisingly positive.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 18, 2018
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A short, yet impactful account of Chomsky's opinions of the events and politics leading up to and following the 9/11 attacks.

I found Chomsky's evaluation of the evidence (or lack thereof) personally linking bin Laden to the 9/11 plot particularly interesting. His point that the U.S. may have preferred to execute Osama rather than putting him on trial, due to a lack of compelling evidence that directly linked him to the 2001 attacks novel. Although, it's worth noting that Chomsky does stress that al-Qaeda was almost undoubtedly behind the atrocities. In this sense, Chomsky's analysis is a mix of his usual approach of all-around fact-based analysis, mixed with examples of American shortcomings/crimes and double-standards which inform Chomsky's theses and paint a much more rounded view of the non-binary reality of history/current-affairs.

As a negative, the majority of the book is printed in an interview style, question and answer type format. Meaning one, Chomsky tends to give short answers and two despite the editors best efforts the content of his answers is somewhat repetitive.

That said, this is an excellent brief overview of the key history surrounding 9/11 from an intellectual who aims for objectivity rather than mainstream popularity.
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