Power and Terror: Post-9/11 Talks and Interviews

by Noam Chomsky

Book Overview

In this, his first new book since the international bestseller 9-11, Noam Chomsky presents his latest thinking on terrorism and U.S. foreign policy, focusing on alternatives to the current course of armed provocation. Noam Chomsky is the author of, among many other books, Profit over People, and the international anti-war bestseller 9-11, which has sold over 300,000 copies worldwide.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1583225900
• ISBN13: 9781583225905
• Release Date: February 2003
• Publisher: Seven Stories Press
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.5" x 0.4" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

No surprises

No shock to those familiar with Chomsky's writing/lecturing. Power and terror exposes the other 50% of the story conveniently omitted by American media. It sheds clear light on the 'good guy' stance the US government insists it is taking and has historically taken. Chomsky is one of the names that is a must read for everyone. Unfortunately, the comfort of ignorance and blind patriotism will leave him unread by many, and even worse: thought of as an unamerican traitor, sympathetic to terrorism.Power and terror reminds us that terrorism has been going on for quite some time now, and is only so highly mentioned today due to the fact that our governmental misdeeds have finally come back around to cause suffering at home. For the 1st time, Americans are made the victims of terror, and this is one book that will help us understand why Americans are the targets of such hatred and violence.

The Raw Truth

This book is NOT for those that the truth makes them uneasy.Nor for the ones that deceiving themselves is easier .Perhaps, more comfortable . Noam Chomsky will stir your soul into righteous indignation .This book is for those that are totally ready to see the truth,not only of how and when we've been lied to ; but how we're continued to be fooled.Not one, can come out feeling pure and victorious after reading this book . Something will be ripped from you.And that something is the MYTH . In my case the "admiration and awe" I had of one time President Jimmy Carter,was totally demolished.I had put him in the line of Saints. In either case, read this book if you want to see the real face, behind the mask that is made of centuries and centuries of layers of lies.After reading this book you'll know the truth, but victorious you will never feel again when you hear of "rumors of wars" , or of ongoing wars.You will learn that there's not one government in the face of Earth that is benevolent.And they will do anything to keep their power.And of course the most powerful ones will fight even harder .

A window on the world outside conformism

I received this book from a friend of mine in the US. It is a thoughtful critical collection of interviews and public lecture snippets that conveys again the great challenges that good men face when they confront hypocrisy. Chomsky is the quintessential Aristotelian moralist. All behaviour, all choices have moral implications. In this collection, put together for the eponymous documentary, he presents an analysis, sometimes light admittedly, of the extraordinary moral dualism of the West, in particular the US. The division of good from bad is performed by acts of simple econonomic expediency. Foreign policy is no more than translocated domestic economic policies. This is a bruising book for those clinging to naive assumptions about the civilising influences of Western democracy. The troubling question is: how can things be made different? As an aside after I finished this book, I bought Derrick Bell's testament to the importance of living an examined life. That certainly answers the question above.

To the point

This is a quick read and one that is worth the few hours or so that it takes to read the entire book. Mr Chomsky gets his points across directly and clearly. He is able to show why we are having problems in the Middle east, why the people there do not trust us and why we are taking the action that we have taken. I would have liked a few more footnotes. He mentions a few things that he assumes the read is already aware of; however, it would have been nice to have a few more details. This is a very good book in setting the record straight. Once you have finished this book please get another one of his and go through it. Everything that he writes (or says since most of this one is from various talks that he has given in 2002) is very "matter of fact" and to the point. It really makes you think.

Noam Chomsky: Common Sense for Our Times

Power and Terror is a brief, but packed overview of U.S. and world power politics. Once again, Chomsky highlights the major issues and struggles of our times, referencing official sources, bringing out historical trends and applying massive amounts of common sense to cut through the rhetoric and the false dichotomies that so often pass for official debate. This is no holds barred classic Chomsky, an especially important contribution to the literature of the anti-war movement at this time. I consider this book to be much more detailed and better organized and more cohesive than "9-11." If you know who Noam Chomsky is, you don't need me to explain his politics here. If you have not yet read Noam Chomsky, there is no better place to start than with this book.