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The Penguin books that shaped our political understanding

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Reading lists

Where to start reading Noam Chomsky’s books

How U.S. Foreign Policy Endangers the World

The Myth of American Idealism

'One of the greatest, most radical public thinkers of our time. When the sun sets on the American empire, as it will, as it must, Noam Chomsky's work will survive' Arundhati Roy 
 
From one of the world’s most prominent thinkers comes an urgent warning of the threat that US power poses to humanity’s future 
 
The land of the free. The home of the brave. But what has America achieved in the aim of ‘spreading democracy’ — except wreak havoc across the globe and establish a reckless foreign policy that serves the interest of few and has endangered all too many? 
 
In this timely book, Noam Chomsky writing with Nathan J. Robinson, vividly traces America’s pursuit of global domination, offering an incisive critique of the self-serving myths that dominant elites in the United States continue to push. 
 
Offering penetrating accounts of Washington’s role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, they examine how interventions such as these have been justified with noble stories about humanitarian missions and benevolent intentions but are now driving us closer to wars with Russia and China. 
 
At once thorough and devastating, urgent and provocative, The Myth of American Idealism offers a highly readable entry to the conclusions Noam Chomsky has come to after a lifetime of thought and activism. 
 
'The west's most prominent critic of US imperialism . . . the closest thing in the English-speaking world to an intellectual superstar' Guardian

A foundational document that would make for good introductory education for a public more resistant to this propaganda . . . Through exhaustive research into the way Americans—government officials, soldiers, journalists—have discussed American foreign policy over the years, Robinson and Chomsky tell a sweeping story of American aggression and amorality in language that is simple, even innocent . . . An incredibly valuable teaching tool for teenagers and young adults as they become politically engaged

The most accessible and coherent introduction to Chomsky's ideas. Chomsky's virtues are in abundant evidence here. He writes with absolute clarity and a withering sarcasm . . . Reading Chomsky can be truly eye-opening for those unaware of what he reveals: facts that are rarely discussed in the mainstream American media or in its schools

Offers rich food for thought . . . the authors’ top-versus-bottom analysis becomes strikingly perceptive in a final chapter analyzing how today a global elite benefits from world-killing fossil fuels

Written in a direct, no-nonsense style, full of shrewd analysis and layered with potent details, it is an excellent summary—and condemnation—of how the United States has shaped the world since it became a global superpower after World War II . . . The Myth of American Idealism should become required reading for those seeking to learn about the blood-soaked history of the American Empire. Without a doubt, Chomsky and Robinson have fulfilled their responsibility as intellectuals to speak the truth and to expose lies

[This book] couldn’t be more timely. An outspoken critic of American empire for most of his life, here Chomsky zeroes in on the myths underlying that imperial expansion, namely the idea that the spread of democracy (no matter the methods) is an unalloyed good. The problem, of course, is that powerful men in small rooms who think themselves both wise and just tend to do the most damage

Noam Chomsky has been proved right . . . The record of hypocrisy recounted by Chomsky and Robinson is sobering and convincing. No open-minded reader could absorb this book and continue to believe the pious rationales that U.S. leaders invoke to justify their bare-knuckled actions

Insightful, scathingly honest . . . For well over half a century a rare voice of sanity and reason in the wilderness of American hypocrisy, lies, and dissembling, [Chomsky] is high on my list of American patriot heroes . . . Robinson, too, is a truth teller

A potent critique of the ideology behind America’s foreign interventions and its status as a global power, and a treatise on how the nation’s hubristic pursuit of 'spreading democracy' threatens not only the delicate balance of global peace, but the already-declining health of our planet. Who it’s for: Chomskyites; policy wonks and casual critics of American recklessness alike

Noam Chomsky (Author) Noam Chomsky is institute professor emeritus in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and lau­reate professor in the Agnes Nelms Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice at the University of Arizona. His work is widely credited with having revolutionized the field of modern linguistics, and he is equally renowned for his incisive writings on global affairs and U.S. foreign policy. The single most cited and published living author, winner of numer­ous international awards, Chomsky has written over one hundred books, including the bestselling political works Hegemony or Survival, Failed States, and Who Rules the World?. Nathan J. Robinson (Author) Nathan J. Robinson is the cofounder and editor in chief of Current Affairs magazine. He is the author of Why You Should Be a Socialist and Responding to the Right, and his articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The New Republic, among others. Robinson holds a JD from Yale Law School and a PhD in sociology and social policy from Harvard University.

The land of the free. The home of the brave. But what has America achieved in the aim of ‘spreading democracy’ — except wreak havoc across the globe and establish a reckless foreign policy that serves the interest of few and has endangered all too many? 
 
In this timely book, Noam Chomsky writing with Nathan J. Robinson, vividly traces America’s pursuit of global domination, offering an incisive critique of the self-serving myths that dominant elites in the United States continue to push. 
 
Offering penetrating accounts of Washington’s role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, they examine how interventions such as these have been justified with noble stories about humanitarian missions and benevolent intentions but are now driving us closer to wars with Russia and China. 
 
At once thorough and devastating, urgent and provocative, The Myth of American Idealism offers a highly readable entry to the conclusions Noam Chomsky has come to after a lifetime of thought and activism.

Illegitimate Authority: Facing the Challenges of Our Time

&lsquo;One of the greatest, most radical public thinkers of our time&rsquo; ARUNDHATI ROY 
 
In these incisive interviews, activist Chomsky addresses the urgent questions of this tumultuous time, speaking to the deterioration of democracy in the United States and rising tensions globally. 
 
He examines the crumbling of the social fabric and the fractures of the Biden era, including the halting steps toward a Green New Deal, the illegitimate authority of the Supreme Court, in particular its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, and the ongoing fallout from COVID-19. Chomsky also untangles the roots of the War in Ukraine, the diplomatic tensions among the United States, China, and Russia, and considers the need for climate action on an international scale. 
 
Illegitimate Authority exposes those who wield power in their own self-interest and plots framework for how we can stand together and fight against injustice. 
 
'The West's most prominent critic of US imperialism . . . the closest thing in the English-speaking world to an intellectual superstar' Guardian 
 
'Will there ever again be a public intellectual who commands the attention of so many across the planet?' New Statesman

Noam Chomsky examines the crumbling of the social fabric and the fractures of the Biden era, including the halting steps toward a Green New Deal, the illegitimate authority of the Supreme Court, in particular its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, and the ongoing fallout from COVID-19. Chomsky also untangles the roots of the War in Ukraine, the diplomatic tensions among the United States, China, and Russia, and considers the need for climate action on an international scale. 
 
Illegitimate Authority exposes those who wield power in their own self-interest and plots framework for how we can stand together and fight against injustice.

Chronicles of Dissent

&lsquo;One of the greatest, most radical public thinkers of our time&rsquo; ARUNDHATI ROY 
 
An accessible, powerful overview of Noam Chomsky's political thought 
 
In sixteen extended talks with Alternative Radio's David Barsamian, Noam Chomsky explains:<ul><li>Why the 'war on drugs' is really a war on poor people.</li><li>How attacks on political correctness are attacks on independent thought.</li><li>How historical revisionism has recast the United States as the victim in the Vietnam War.</li></ul>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.

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.

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.

The Precipice is a vehement discussion of how American politics have changed, particularly over the past forty years

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. 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.

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.

Noam Chomsky is indispensable. Just as it is impossible to imagine appreciating the dramatic arts without learning Shakespeare, or loving jazz trumpet without an appreciation of Louis Armstrong, it is inconceivable that one might study contemporary political thought without reading Chomsky

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. 
 
 Marvin Waterstone is Professor Emeritus in the School of Geography and Development at the 
University of Arizona, where he has been a faculty member for over 30 years. He is also the former 
director of the University of Arizona Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Comparative Cultural and Literary Studies. His research and teaching focus on the Gramscian notions of hegemony and common sense, and their connections to social justice and progressive social change. His most recent books are Wageless Life (co-authored with Ian Shaw) and Geographic Thought (co-edited with George Henderson).

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 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.

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.

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.

Noam Chomsky

C. J. Polychroniou

Celebrated scholar and social critic Chomsky address some of today's most vexing problems, from A.I. to climate change

In this illuminating collection of interviews, Noam Chomsky shares his insights on the pressing challenges facing humanity. A Liveable Future is Possible addresses artificial intelligence and the potential for such programs to surpass humans in cognitive awareness; what lies ahead for a world engulfed in a deadly climate crisis; the rise of neo-fascism internationally, and why we should organize across borders to confront it and the striking similarities between Trump and Biden's foreign policies. 
 
Noam Chomsky has been an incomparable model of moral clarity and intellectual courage during his many decades as a scholar, political activist and social critic. A Liveable Future Is Possible is not only an urgent and informative book, it is a call-to-action for those hoping to help carry the torch of one of history’s greatest minds.

Noam Chomsky

Praise for A Liveable Future is Possible

Celebrated scholar and social critic Chomsky address some of today's most vexing problems, from A.I. to climate change

Books by Noam Chomsky

Articles featuring Noam Chomsky

The Penguin books that shaped our political understanding

Where to start reading Noam Chomsky’s books

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