Hegemony or Survival (Penguin Celebrations) - Softcover

Chomsky, Noam

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141035064 ISBN 13: 9780141035062

Publisher: Penguin, 2007

Synopsis

Noam Chomsky, the world’s foremost intellectual activist, presents an irrefutable analysis of America’s pursuit of total domination and the catastrophic consequences that are sure to follow.

From the funding of repressive regimes to the current ‘war on terror’, the toppling of governments counter to its beliefs to the invasion of Iraq, America pursues its global strategy no matter what the cost. With the rigour and insight that have made him our most important ‘unraveller of accredited lies’, Noam Chomsky reveals the truth and the true motives behind America’s quest for dominance – and seeks also to show us how the world may yet step back from the brink.

About this title

Review:

Scholarly polemicist Noam Chomsky's latest book Hegemony or Survival argues that America's strategy for the future is nothing less than the maintenance of American hegemony through the use or threat of military force--a strategy that threatens to leave the world a more dangerous and divided place. He goes on to claim that the only other world superpower with any chance whatever of curbing America's ideologically driven quest for global dominance is World Public Opinion. Recent books on American involvement in Middle East affairs, books such as Dilip Hiro's Iraq, Rampton and Stauber's Weapons of Mass Deception, and, more recently, The Guardian sponsored The War We Could Not Stop have also drawn attention to the propaganda war waged upon the American public by the Bush administration. For Chomsky this is by no means a new development. He sees American foreign policy historically showing a remarkably pattern of hypocrisy, racism, exploitation, and cynical manipulation of public opinion by successive US administrations. What is new and disturbing about the events leading up to the invasion of Iraq, he says, is the precedent America and Britain have set for establishing new norms of international law. The concept of "preventative war" must have its victims and those victims must be weak, yet important enough to be worth the trouble. Any country that is opposed to US interests but is capable of defending itself--i.e., those with nuclear capabilities--will be left alone. He leaves us with the terrifying assessment that the clear and catastrophic message to opponents of American hegemony is to get nuclear--quick. It's the only way to keep the bully off our backs.

One of Chomsky's special talent remains his ability to undermine comforting platitudes--such as the idea that we Westerners have become more "humanitarian" over the last few decades or that we have been making steady moral progress. As with Greg Palast's The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, Chomsky's Hegemony or Survival is relentlessly damning of the American political and economic elite and highly sceptical of the idea that virtue is to be found there. But if you're looking for a more balanced and hopeful examination of America's excursion into modern empire building and the problems it poses try Michael Ignatieff's Empire Lite. --Larry Brown

Review:

Praise for "Hegemony or Survival:
"If, for reasons of chance, or circumstance (or sloth), you have to pick just one book on the subject of the American Empire, I'd say pick this one. It's the Full Monty. It's Chomsky at his best." Hegemony or Survival is necessary reading."
-Arundhati Roy
Praise for "Hegemony or Survival":
"If, for reasons of chance, or circumstance (or sloth), you have to pick just one book on the subject of the American Empire, I'd say pick this one. It's the Full Monty. It's Chomsky at his best." Hegemony or Survival "is necessary reading."
-Arundhati Roy
Praise for "Hegemony or Survival": "If, for reasons of chance, or circumstance (or sloth), you have to pick just one book on the subject of the American Empire, I'd say pick this one. It's the Full Monty. It's Chomsky at his best." Hegemony or Survival "is necessary reading." -Arundhati Roy

Praise for "Hegemony or Survival"
"If, for reasons of chance, or circumstance (or sloth), you have to pick just one book on the subject of the American Empire, I'd say pick this one. It's the Full Monty. It's Chomsky at his best." Hegemony or Survival "is necessary reading."
-Arundhati Roy
"If, for reasons of chance, or circumstance (or sloth), you have to pick just one book on the subject of the American Empire, I'd say pick this one. It's the Full Monty. It's Chomsky at his best." Hegemony or Survival "is necessary reading."
-Arundhati Roy
"Reading Chomsky today is sobering and instructive."--Samantha Power, "The New York Times""" "Highly readable...cogent and provocative."--"Publishers Weekly"

If, for reasons of chance, or circumstance (or sloth), you have to pick just one book on the subject of the American Empire, I'd say pick this one. It's the Full Monty. It's Chomsky at his best." Hegemony or Survival "is necessary reading. "Arundhati Roy"

Reading Chomsky today is sobering and instructive. "Samantha Power, The New York Times"

Highly readable...cogent and provocative. "Publishers Weekly""

If, for reasons of chance, or circumstance (or sloth), you have to pick just one book on the subject of the American Empire, I'd say pick this one. It's the Full Monty. It's Chomsky at his best. Hegemony or Survival is necessary reading. Arundhati Roy

Reading Chomsky today is sobering and instructive. Samantha Power, The New York Times

Highly readable...cogent and provocative. Publishers Weekly

"

"If, for reasons of chance, or circumstance (or sloth), you have to pick just one book on the subject of the American Empire, I'd say pick this one. It's the Full Monty. It's Chomsky at his best. Hegemony or Survival is necessary reading." --Arundhati Roy

"Reading Chomsky today is sobering and instructive." --Samantha Power, The New York Times

"Highly readable...cogent and provocative." --Publishers Weekly

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0141035064
• ISBN 13: 9780141035062
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320