Noam Chomsky
Selected by Newsweek as one of â€œ14 nonfiction books youâ€™ll want to read this fallâ€,Fifty years after it first appeared, one of Noam Chomskyâ€™s greatest essays will be published for the first time as a timely stand-alone book, with a new preface by the author,As a nineteen-year-old undergraduate in 1947, Noam Chomsky was deeply affected by articles about the responsibility of intellectuals written by Dwight Macdonald, an editor of Partisan Review and then of Politics. Twenty years later, as the Vietnam War was escalating, Chomsky turned to the question himself, noting that â€œintellectuals are in a position to expose the lies of governmentsâ€ and to analyze their â€œoften hidden intentions.â€,Originally published in the New York Review of Books, Chomskyâ€™s essay eviscerated the â€œhypocritical moralism of the pastâ€ (such as when Woodrow Wilson set out to teach Latin Americans â€œthe art of good governmentâ€) and exposed the shameful policies in Vietnam and the role of intellectuals in justifying it.,Also included in this volume is the brilliant â€œThe Responsibility of Intellectuals Redux,â€ written on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, which makes the case for using privilege to challenge the state. As relevant now as it was in 1967, The Responsibility of Intellectuals reminds us that â€œprivilege yields opportunity and opportunity confers responsibilities.â€ All of us have choices, even in desperate times.
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The Responsibility of Intellectuals