Name: Understanding Power
Rating: 4.461538461538462 (13 reviews)
ISBN: 9781565847033

Peter R. Mitchell

John Schoeffel

An introduction to Noam Chomsky's views on the politics of power discusses third-party politics in the United States, the suppression of dissent, U.S. foreign and domestic policy, and the role of the media.

The Indispensable Chomsky

Understanding Power

Greg Talbot

Having a level of privilege, working in a cosmopolitan, a meaningful job, artistic hobbies, and family and friends within a reasonable distance, I find myself draw toward more viewpoints that challenge my complacency and worldview. <br /><br />"Hegemony or Survival" and the U.S. efforts in Latin America to subvert democratic processes was revelatory, so I was happy to pick this one up. Chomsky remains well-spoken and elegant at times in his answered toward international policy questions. But there is a simplicity, a lack of discussion of complex systems or internal motivations, and just general us/them class theory that felt jejune or reductive.<br /><br />At times Chomsky makes comments how academics know nothing about human nature, or comes to conclusions that support a generally hostile U.S. approach, or just an unwilligness to look at corporatations as anything other than nefarious entities. And you get a view of human nature and society that feels limited and unlike the planet i'm living on. I admire Chomsky's outspokenness, and his voice as a far-left voice...but found his work here ultimately flat. Further the advent of technology around community organization and political discussion has drastically changed how Americans understand the world. And not all for the better, as the alt-right and conspiracy theorists approach mainstream viewers. You can't but help that feel some of this work is just of a certain time and perspective..but ultimately a little dated.

Noam Chomsky

'Arguably the most important intellectual alive' New York Times An indispensable collection of Noam Chomsky’s talks on the past, present and future of the politics of power Noam Chomsky is universally accepted as one of the world’s leading intellectuals of the modern era. Now, for the first time, Peter R. Mitchell and John Schoeffel have assembled the best of Chomsky's talks on the politics of power. With an eye to political activism and the media’s role in popular struggle, as well as US foreign and domestic policy, Chomsky reinterprets the events of the past three decades, from foreign policy during the Vietnam War to the decline of welfare under the Clinton administration. Highlighting America’s myriad of social inequalities and political issues while offering timely advice for much needed change, Understanding Power is definitive Chomsky. ‘Chomsky ranks with Marx, Shakespeare and the Bible as one of the ten most quoted sources in the humanities’ Guardian ‘Powerful and timely...his analysis is fair, meticulously researched and fascinating’ Observer

Fraser Simons

I would say this won’t blow your mind if you are aware of the subjects targeted already, beyond simply reading about them in the newspaper of course, but it covers a wide range of topics posed to the author. And because it’s fairly old, originally published in 2002 I believe, it gives a great, micro picture of leftism at that time. 

The funny thing about this book is most of the things Nonsky is criticized for by self identified leftists as well as the right, are addressed here—either organically by answering certain questions, or else specific questions about the social perspective and media perspective of him—and what you find is that he doesn’t actually say or believe the the popular perception proliferates. I routinely scroll Twitter and see people saying Nomsky says X and does Y, etc etc etc. And so we can conclude he’s not leftist enough, or is pro capitalism, actually. Yet, ironically, he those things are just the spin on his views. If you actually read him, he will outright state that use of violence is justified but it will be used to undermine the cause, but there is no moral tension in using force. In fact you have to use force. Yet you often see out of context quotes where he seems to be completely against it. It feels very much like the spin on MLK in some ways. 

Anyway, I digress. I think if you want to get at the actual core values and idea of Chomsky, this is a great book to consume because of the Q and A structure.

Nikolay Bachiyski

Not assembled by Chomsky, but by some genius editors who organized and very precisely cut pieces of many interviews with him. I loved the format. The covered a much broader range of topics than I expected and the more conversational style made it a lot easier to swallow.

Now, to the more complicated part of the review – the content itself. Based on knowing a little bit about Chomsky, my approach to listening the book was to pay closer attention to the facts and explanations how and why the works and tactfully let his ideas about how the world should go in one ear and out the other. This strategy worked marvelously.

Some of the topics covered are: US foreign policy and its brutal aggression, capitalism and how capital effectively governs the country, media/education/intellectualism and how they are mostly used as propaganda tools, dissent and how they had an actual effect on US government actions.

My two main takeaways:
- After learning more about how the world works, the only way to deal with the imminent depression and being overwhelmed is to stick to the things we can change and enjoy and work on changing them day after day, putting one foot in front of the other, until we see an improvement.
- While flawed, the current system works reasonably well – we live longer, violence is minimal compared to the past, with a little bit of luck one can lead a decent life. Not to say we should accept the status quo, but amount our regular rage about how fucked up the world is, let's at least for a second acknowledge the current complex (and surprising, to me) balance.

Niklas Westren-Doll

Penguin Books India PVT, Limited

In a series of enlightening and wide-ranging discussions, published here for the first time, the author radically reinterprets the events of the past three decades, covering topics from foreign policy during the Viet-nam war to the decline of the welfare under the Clinton administration. Characterized by Chomsky's accessible and informative style, this is the ideal book for those new to his work as well as those who have been listening for years.

Witek Bobrowski

Daniel Figueiredo

Jens Madsen

Stella Tran

Fan 

Matthew Swain

Phil Sheard

Joshua Line

'Arguably the most important intellectual alive' New York Times An indispensable collection of Noam Chomsky's talks on the past, present and future of the politics of power Noam Chomsky is universally accepted as one of the world's leading intellectuals of the modern era. Now, for the first time, Peter R. Mitchell and John Schoeffel have assembled the best of Chomsky's talks on the politics of power. With an eye to political activism and the media's role in popular struggle, as well as US foreign and domestic policy, Chomsky reinterprets the events of the past three decades, from foreign policy during the Vietnam War to the decline of welfare under the Clinton administration. Highlighting America's myriad of social inequalities and political issues while offering timely advice for much needed change, Understanding Power is definitive Chomsky. 'Chomsky ranks with Marx, Shakespeare and the Bible as one of the ten most quoted sources in the humanities' Guardian 'Powerful and timely...his analysis is fair, meticulously researched and fascinating' Observer

Understanding Power The Indispensable Chomsky

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