“The Essential Chomsky” Summary of the Book
Noam Chomsky has been a renowned, revered philosopher, critic and linguist. His writings on politics, society and language have had much influence across borders. He has been a prolific writer whose woks have been benchmarks for scholars, academicians, activists and even a common man who wanted to gain more knowledge on various subjects. He has raised his voice against the United States war in Vietnam and the Middle East and has been strongly supporting anti-war movements through his writings since more than four decades now. The Essential Chomsky brings you some of his best intellectual writings that are thought provoking and educative.
About Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky was born on the 7th of December, 1928 in Philadelphia. He obtained his PhD in linguistics in the year 1955. While he was a Junior Fellow at the Harvard University, he finished his doctoral dissertation entitled, Transformational Analysis. His major theoretical standpoints of the thesis appeared in the monograph Syntactic Structure, which was published in the year 1957. This shaped part of a further extensive work, The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory, published in 1975. Chomsky later taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1961, he was appointed full professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics. For a decade – from the year 1966 to 1976 he held the Ferrari P. Ward Professorship of Modern Languages and Linguistics. In the year 1976 he was appointed Institute Professor. From 1958 to 1959, Chomsky was in residence at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, New Jersey. Some of his notable books are Syntactic Structures, Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies, The Fateful Triangle, Imperial Ambitions and Gaza in Crisis.
“The Essential Chomsky” Contents
Foreword
1. A Review of B. F. Skinner’s Verbal Behavior……..1 2. Preface to Aspects of the Theory of Syntax………31 3. Methodological Preliminaries ………………33 4. The Responsibility of Intellectuals ………..39 5. On Resistance……………..63 6. Language and Freedom………75 7. Notes on Anarchism…………..92 8. The Rule of Force in International Affairs…………105 9. Watergate: A Skeptical View…………….134 10. The Remaking of History…………….141 11. Foreign Policy and the Intelligentsia……….160 12. The United States and East Timor………….187 13. The Origins of the “Special Relationship”……..198 14. Planning for Global Hegemony ………….223 15. The View Beyond: Prospects for the Study of Mind……..232 16. Containing the Enemy………….257 17. Introduction to the Minimalist Program ……………277 18. New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind………285 19. Intentional Ignorance and Its Uses ………300 20. A World Without War …………..325 21. Reflections on 9-11……………..341 22. Language and the Brain…………..347 23. United States—Israel-Palestine ………..368 24. Imperial Grand Strategy……………373 25. Afterword to Failed States…………….403 Acknowledgments…………….415 Permissions……………………417 Notes………………………421 Select Bibliography of Works by Noam Chomsky…………….485 Index………….491
