The Essential Chomsky

Noam Chomsky's writings on politics and language have established him as a pre-eminent public intellectual and one of the most original and wide-ranging political and social critics of our time. Among the seminal figures in linguistic theory over the past century, since the 1960s Chomsky has also secured a place as perhaps the leading dissident voice in the United States.

Chomsky's many bestselling works — including Manufacturing Consent, Hegemony or Survival, Understanding Power and Failed States — have served as essential touchstones for dissidents, activists, scholars and concerned citizens on subjects ranging from the media to human rights to intellectual freedom. In particular, Chomsky's scathing critiques of the US wars in Vietnam, Central America and the Middle East have furnished a widely accepted intellectual inspiration for anti-war movements over nearly five decades.

The Essential Chomsky assembles the core of his most important writings and allows us to appreciate both the range of his interests and the scale of his achievement. Here is an unprecedented, comprehensive overview of Chomsky's thought.