Interventions

Interventions, by Noam Chomsky, is getting new press after the Pentagon banned the book from Guantanamo Bay's prison library. The Miami Herald broke the story on October 11, 2009, and stories followed in The Washington Independent, the Boston Herald, and other outlets. Democracy Now! picked up the story on October 13: "Published in 2007, Interventions compiles a series of Chomsky's columns. The Pentagon has refused to explain why the book has been barred." Interventions is Noam Chomsky at his best. Not since his all-time bestselling title, 9/11, published in the Open Media series in 2001, have readers and listeners had a timely, short, affordable Chomsky. Unlike 9/11, Interventions is a writerly work—a series of more than 30 tightly argued essays aimed at various aspects of U.S. power and politics in the post-9/11 world. While critical of U.S. military interventions around the globe, each piece in the book is in itself an intellectual intervention aimed at raising public ire about the consequences of U.S. use of power at home and abroad. Interventions’ subjects span from 9/11 and the Iraq war to Social Security and Intelligent Design, South America and Asia, the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the election of Hamas, Hurricane Katrina, and the U.S. concept of "just war". According to BusinessWeek, "With relentless logic, Chomsky bids us to listen closely to what our leaders tell us—and to discern what they are leaving out.... Agree with him or not, we lose out by not listening." Chomsky’s Interventions delivers what readers and listeners want: an accessible set of skeleton keys for opening up a wide range of global issues dominating today’s political landscape. Noam Chomsky is the critically acclaimed author of many books, including Hegemony or Survival, Imperial Ambitions, Failed States, Manufacturing Consent, and Media Control.