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Recommendations

10 of the most popular Penguin Podcast episodes

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Reading lists

Where to start reading Noam Chomsky’s books

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Extracts

Occupy by Noam Chomsky

Neoliberalism, the Pandemic and the Urgent Need for Radical Change

The Precipice

In this powerful collection of interviews, Noam Chomsky exposes the problems of our world today, as we stand in this period of monumental change, preparing for a more hopeful tomorrow. 
 
'For the left, elections are a brief interlude in a life of real politics, a moment to ask whether it's worth taking time off to vote . . . Then back to work. The work will be to move forward to construct the better world that is within reach.' 
He sheds light into the phenomenon of right-wing populism, and exposes the catastrophic nature and impact of authoritarian policies on people, the environment and the planet as a whole. He captures the dynamics of the brutal class warfare launched by the masters of capital to maintain and even enhance the features of a dog-eat-dog society. And he celebrates the recent unprecedented mobilizations of millions of people internationally against neoliberal capitalism, racism and police violence. 
 
We stand at a precipice and we must fight to pull the world back from it.

Manufacturing Discontent and Resistance

Consequences of Capitalism

An essential primer on capitalism, politics and how the world works, based on the hugely popular undergraduate lecture series 'What is Politics?' 
 
 
Is there an alternative to capitalism? In this landmark text Chomsky and Waterstone chart a critical map for a more just and sustainable society. 
 
'Covid-19 has revealed glaring failures and monstrous brutalities in the current capitalist system. It represents both a crisis and an opportunity. Everything depends on the actions that people take into their own hands.' 
 
How does politics shape our world, our lives and our perceptions? How much of 'common sense' is actually driven by the ruling classes' needs and interests? And how are we to challenge the capitalist structures that now threaten all life on the planet? 
 
Consequences of Capitalism exposes the deep, often unseen connections between neoliberal 'common sense' and structural power. In making these linkages, we see how the current hegemony keeps social justice movements divided and marginalized. And, most importantly, we see how we can fight to overcome these divisions.

Conversations on the Rising Threats to Democracy

Global Discontents

If you've never read any Chomsky before, and you want to know what all the fuss is about, this book is a good place to start. Yet more evidence of why Chomsky deserves his position as one of the world's foremost intellectuals

Noam Chomsky is the bestselling author of some of the most influential political books of the past fifty years, including Hegemony or Survival, Imperial Ambitions, Failed States, and Who Rules the World. Noam Chomsky is Professor Emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). 
 
David Barsamian, director of the award-winning and widely syndicated Alternative Radio, is a winner of the Lannan Foundation's Cultural Freedom Fellowship and the ACLU's Upton Sinclair Award for independent journalism. He lives in Boulder, Colorado.

'If I were a voter in Britain, I would vote for [Jeremy Corbyn]' - Noam Chomsky, 2017 
 
Global Discontents is an essential guide to geopolitics and how to fight back, from the world's leading public intellectual 
 
What kind of world are we leaving to our grandchildren? How are the discontents kindled today likely to blaze and explode tomorrow? 
 
From escalating climate change to the devastation in Syria, pandemic state surveillance to looming nuclear war, Noam Chomsky takes stock of the world today. Over the course of ten conversations with long-time collaborator David Barsamian, spanning 2013-2016, Chomsky argues in favour of radical changes to a system that cannot possibly cope with what awaits tomorrow. 
 
Interwoven with personal reflections spanning from childhood to his eighth decade of life, Global Discontents also marks out Chomsky's own intellectual journey, mapping his progress to revolutionary ideas and global prominence.

Optimism Over Despair

Highly informative ,deftly organized... Noam Chomsky teaches us-yet again-so much on a huge range of issues... If you haven't read Chomsky before, this book will open your eyes. Even if you have, reading this book will make you realize that you still have more eyes to be opened. A beacon in this turbulent and darkening world

Ha-Joon Chang, author of '23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism'

Especially valuable in helping us navigate the dreadful challenges of the Trumpian era... For all those of us who have always dreamed of spending a day with Noam Chomsky and getting his answers to all our questions about the (sorry) state of the world, here's the next best thing: a collection of interviews with our greatest living intellectual on capitalism, empire, and social change

Astonishing, fundamental, urgent... Demonstrating anew that Noam Chomsky is the world's most humane, philosophically sophisticated, and knowledgeable public intellectual. I cannot imagine a better primer for anyone seeking a better, safer, fairer future

Professor Richard Falk, International Law Emeritus at Princeton University

In this brilliant series of recent and wide-ranging interviews, Noam Chomsky combines an astounding breadth of knowledge, great depth of insight, clarity and a relentless commitment to social and economic justice. Simply exhilarating, especially in our current dismal era of Donald Trump. Optimism over Despair is a book to devour

Professor Robert Pollin, Codirector of the Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts

Noam Chomsky is the bestselling author of over 100 influential political books, including Hegemony or Survival, Imperial Ambitions, Failed States, Interventions, What We Say Goes, Hopes and Prospects, Making the Future, On Anarchism, Masters of Mankind and Who Rules the World. He has also been the subject of numerous books of biography and interviews and has collaborated with journalists on books such as Perilous Power, Gaza in Crisis, and On Palestine. Noam Chomsky is Professor Emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

An essential overview of the problems of our world today -- and how we should prepare for tomorrow -- from the world's leading public intellectual 
 
We have two choices. We can be pessimistic, give up, and help ensure that the worst will happen. Or we can be optimistic, grasp the opportunities that surely exist, and maybe help make the world a better place. Not much of a choice. 
 
From peerless political thinker Noam Chomsky comes an exploration of rising neoliberalism, the refugee crisis in Europe, the Black Lives Matter movement, the dysfunctional US electoral system, and the prospects and challenges of building a movement for radical change. 
 
Including four up-to-the-minute interviews on the 2016 American election campaign and global resistance to Trump, this Penguin Special is a concise introduction to Chomsky's ideas and his take on the state of the world today.

Who Rules the World?

Publisher's description.  Noam Chomsky is the world's most influential political commentator, bar none. Here he presents a comprehensive examination of contemporary America, its behaviour at home and abroad, its single-minded pursuit and exercise of power.

Noam Chomsky is the bestselling author of over 100 influential political books, including Hegemony or Survival, Imperial Ambitions, Failed States, Interventions, What We Say Goes, Hopes and Prospects, Making the Future, On Anarchism, Masters of Mankind and Who Rules the World. He has also been the subject of numerous books of biography and interviews and has collaborated with journalists on books such as Perilous Power, Gaza in Crisis, and On Palestine. 
 
Noam Chomsky is Institute Professor (emeritus) in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Laureate Professor of Linguistics and Agnese Nelms Haury Chair in the Program in Environment and Social Justice at the University of Arizona.

Who Rules the World is the essential account of geopolitics right now - including an afterword on President Donald Trump 
 
Noam Chomsky: philosopher, political writer, fearless activist. No one has done more to question the hidden actors who govern our lives, calling the powers that be to account. Here he presents Who Rules the World?, his definitive account of those powers, how they work, and why we should be questioning them. 
 
From the dark history of the US and Cuba to China's global rise, from torture memos to sanctions on Iran, this book investigates the defining issues of our times and exposes the hypocrisy at the heart of America's policies and actions. The world's political and financial elite are now operating almost totally unconstrained by the so-called democratic structure. With climate change and nuclear proliferation threatening our very survival, dissenting voices have never been more necessary. 
 
Fiercely outspoken and rigorously argued, Who Rules the World? is an indispensable guide to how things really are.

Because We Say So

Publisher's description. From Edward Snowden and Palestinian-Israeli relations to political philosophy and the nature of democracy, Because We Say So offers a cross-section of perspectives on the question of America's ongoing hegemony.

Chomsky is one of a small band of individuals fighting a whole industry. And that makes him not only brilliant, but heroic

Chomsky's work is neither theoretical, nor ideological: it is passionate and righteous

The world's greatest public intellectual

Because We Say So is Noam Chomsky's essential counter punch to American hegemony 
 
In 1962, the eminent statesman Dean Acheson enunciated a principle that has dominated global politics ever since: that no legal issue arises when the United States responds to a challenge to its 'power, position, and prestige'. In short, whatever the world may think, U.S. actions are legitimate because they say so. 
 
Spanning the impact of Edward Snowden's whistleblowing and Palestinian-Israeli relations to deeper reflections on political philosophy and the importance of a commons to democracy, Because We Say So takes American imperialism head on. 
 
'Noam Chomsky is one of a small band of individuals fighting a whole industry. And that makes him not only brilliant, but heroic' Arundhati Roy 
 
'The world's greatest public intellectual' Observer

Noam Chomsky

An accessible, powerful overview of Noam Chomsky's political thought 
 
In sixteen extended talks with Alternative Radio's David Barsamian, Noam Chomsky explains why the 'war on drugs' is really a war on poor people; how attacks on political correctness are attacks on independent thought; how historical revisionism has recast the United States as the victim in the Vietnam War. Widely recognized as one of the most original and important thinkers of our age, Chomsky's trenchant analysis of current events is a breath of fresh air in a world more and more polluted by mainstream media.

Noam Chomsky

Chronicles of Dissent

Summary

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