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The chapters, each covering discrete sessions with Chomsky, arrive in a question-and-answer format that at times becomes delightfully contentious. Chomsky holds forth on such disparate topics as American third-party politics, the stifling of true dissent, the illusion of a muscular media, heavy-handed American imperialism (from Southeast Asia to Mexico), a dysfunctional and self-destructing United States political left, the gilding of the Kennedy and Carter administrations, and the impotent state of labor unions.
The relatively accessibility of Understanding Power is a welcome balance to Chomsky's often formidable scholarly writings. This is a book best taken in doses: a sort of bedside reader. --H. O'Billovitch
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
READ,
By Fraser Rotchord (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky (Paperback)
This is a very articulate reflection on US capital and state policy which raises questions few if any people have answered in the popular western media. Chomsky has an amazing mind, and that is an understatement; in his ability to quickly connect real and often disparate facts to explain complex ideas--that tie the systems of power. With a respectably high scientific experience and method he has created a formidable legal, philosophical and concientious case against the structure of capitalism in our country and laid out a daunting and unexposed history that every student or citizen should be aware of. The book is easy to read. It is transcribed from his lectures over the years and is stuffed with accurate and easily accessible citations that allow one to make one's own decision over their legitamacy. Chomsky's writing is translucent and a voice that is far too unrecognized... That I am the first person to review this book scares me. There are reasons why wars are fought and planes go crashing into buildings--and in many ways it has nothing to do with the interests of democracy or freedom or "violent" religions.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Can't Play Well With Others,
By doomsdayer520 (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky (Paperback)
This is a rather unconventional book that compiles Noam Chomsky's opinions on just about everything, using transcripts from public discussions he gave over many years in many different places. Thus the book is kind of a hodgepodge that jumps around from topic to topic in a stream-of-consciousness kind of way, despite the editors' attempts to group the topics into chapters. All of Chomsky's opinions on the structure of power in the worlds of economics and politics are in fact responses to questions from anonymous seminar participants, identified here as "Man" or "Woman." Unfortunately I suspect that many of these questions were planted to facilitate speechifying from Chomsky on selected topics. Meanwhile, it is hard to believe that all of Chomsky's comments in this book are merely recorded from live discussions that he gave - the sheer density and complexity of what he's saying suggest a lot of fleshing out by the editors. So approach this book's structure with skepticism.As for Chomsky's opinions themselves, his knowledge of the working of corporate capitalism and economic forces, as related to a huge variety of specific topics, is simply mind-boggling. This is truly a learned man. His insights into the true workings of the capitalist economy for regular people (that is, 99.9% of the population) are extremely enlightening. However, on the political side, Chomsky is dangerously close to paranoid conspiracy theorist territory. He describes himself as either a democratic socialist, or more frequently as an anarchist. His anarchic vision is not of free-for-all chaos however, but a form of government in which there are no politicians and power is really shared by all people equally. He can admit the logistical difficulties of such a utopia, but this anarchist vision results in Chomsky disagreeing with ALL political philosophies. At various points in this book he says that the New Deal was a fascist endeavor, communists and fascists are exactly the same, and that big business is fascist in economics and communist in politics. Basically, both of those extremes are equally far away from Chomsky's desired anarchy. Unfortunately, Chomsky's political diatribes, while certainly compelling and revealing, make him come across as an anti-everything know-it-all. That makes parts of this book extremely tiresome and repetitive.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
review from a factory worker,
By
This review is from: Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky (Paperback)
I work at a factory in South Carolina which is a "right to work" state, a total double speak term which means that my employers have the right to fire me without cause. I am definately a wage slave who works 12 hour rotating shifts with no provisions for breaks nor ability to participate in regularly scheduled events. This book is a bit of an introduction for me as I have tended to believe in the right wing talk radio view of unbridled capitalism as the foundation and salvation of our country. I would recommend this book particularly to those most likely NOT to be reading this review. It's well edited, thought provoking, logical and easy to read (though it took a good while to read due to the amount of thought provoking). Another piece in the puzzle of my alienation and "quiet desperation".
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