Who Rules the World?

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"Noam Chomsky is the world's foremost intellectual activist. Over the last half century, no one has done more to question the great global powers who govern our lives, forensically scrutinizing policies and actions, calling our politicians, institutions and media to account. The culmination of years of work, Who Rules the World? Is Chomsky's definitive intellectual investigation into the major issues of our times. From the dark history of the US and Cuba to China's global rise, from torture memos to sanctions on Iran, Chomsky explores how America's talk of freedom and human rights is often at odds with its actions. Delving deep into the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Israel/Palestine, he provides nuanced, surprising insights into the workings of modern-day imperial power. The world's political and financial elite have become ever more insulated from democratic constraints on their actions. Chomsky shines a powerful light on this inconvenient truth. With climate change and nuclear proliferation threatening the survival of our civilization, the message has never been more pertinent or more urgent- the need for an engaged and active public to steer the world away from disaster grows ever greater. Fiercely outspoken and rigorously argued, Who Rules the World? is an indispensable guide to how things really are from the lone authoritative voice courageous and clear-sighted enough to tell us the truth. "

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Equally depressing, thorough, and necessary, this new work from Chomsky (Because We Say So) shows why he is still among our most insightful public intellectuals. Here, he turns his attention to the U.S.'s current place on the world stage and how it got there. The author pulls no punches while dismantling the mainstream narrative about the Cuban Missile Crisis, American exceptionalism, the threat posed by Iran, and, through many lenses, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A key theme in this work is that the stories Americans tell about themselves are precisely that: stories. Received wisdom and mainstream history conveniently ignore the hard-to-swallow stories of U.S. support for dictators in the Middle East and Central and South America. Moreover, Chomsky observes, American maintenance of the status quo exacerbates climate change and perpetuates the threat of nuclear annihilation. This book is unwavering in its excoriation of U.S. policy, past and present. It supplies no easy answers to the questions it raises, which may very well be the point. Nevertheless, these questions must be posed, and Chomsky does so with contagious fervor. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

According to prominent intellectual Chomsky, America is not the beautiful but the deeply hypocritical. In his most recent book, Chomsky continues to deliver his scathing evaluation of the way American imperialism and foreign policy are entirely self-serving, even though they purport to serve democratic values. Here, as in his previous works, Chomsky is pedantically rigorous, citing academic texts and journals and revisiting seminal issues, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and America's not-so-impartial brokerage of their continued treaties. He looks to the future of climate change and the threat of nuclear war, citing American military blunders and continued omnipresence as the reasons that North Korea and Iran are crazy. Chomsky delivers his characteristically sardonic, biting turns of phrase: The fate of our grandchildren counts as nothing when compared with the imperative of higher profits tomorrow. Because Chomsky's prose is esoteric, self-reflexive, and, at times, dense, this is not for all readers. But Chomsky, fierce and unapologetic, has a strong fan base and continues to be an important voice.--Grant, Sarah Copyright 2016 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

The dean of left-wing American public intellectuals surveys the current scene and despairs.Ever wonder what it must be like to read a single edition of the New York Times the way Chomsky (Emeritus, Linguistics and Philosophy/MIT; What Kind of Creatures Are We?, 2015, etc.) reads it? Perhaps the most intriguing chapter here devotes itself to just this exercise, and it usefully reveals his cast of mind. For Chomsky, the Times is a kind of house organ, valuable for many things but more useful as a guide to the conventional wisdom of those who rule: the United States, the G-7, the global trade organizations and financial institutions they control, multinational conglomerates, retail and media empires. As he considers the news of the day and the responsibility of privileged intellectuals, Chomsky positions himself not with his peers in service to the state but rather with those committed to a higher set of values, "the causes of freedom, justice, mercy, and peace." For decades, the author has written from this perspectivehardly a chapter passes without him citing a previous work of his ownand by now, both critics (infuriated) and admirers (charmed) are familiar with his analysis. Conversationally, with numerous historical references and his trademark mix of wit, sarcasm, invective, insight, and wrongheadedness, he identifies two principal threats, nuclear war and global warming, isolates for particular attention three geographic areas of widespread unrest and violenceEastern Europe, East Asia, and the Islamic worldand drubs our rulers for dismissing public opinion, ignoring the powerless, and placing their own interests and security over the people's welfare. No surprise that the Republican Party and a string of its presidents come in for a pounding, but Chomsky has almost as harsh things to say about presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Clinton, and Obama and their ministers, and liberal commentators like Paul Krugman. Chomsky continues to hope that demands for "independence, self-respect, and personal dignity" may reappear "when awakened by circumstances and militant activism," but he doesn't appear to be holding his breath. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.