The Anti-Chomsky Reader
Encyclopedia
The Anti-Chomsky Reader is a 2004 critique of the political and linguistic writings of Noam Chomsky
. Several authors contributed to it under the editorship of Peter Collier
and David Horowitz.
, in a review in the conservative magazine New Criterion, states that "Collier, Horowitz, and their six other authors have produced a book that has long been needed. It provides a penetrating coverage of the disgraceful career of a disgraceful but very influential man, who has so far avoided a criticism as thoroughgoing as this."
Mark Bauerlein
, in a generally positive review in the libertarian
magazine Reason
, claims that "Collier and Horowitz understand well the manufactured reality of political fame, and to dismantle it requires not contrary vitriol or clever rejoinders but direct, fact-based assertions that undermine the authenticity of the image. To that end, the contributors follow a simple procedure: Quote actual statements by Chomsky and test them for evidence and logic. The best contributions to the volume add the effective and timely tactic of citing Chomsky's progressive virtues and revealing how smoothly he abandons them."
Michael Leon, in a review in the now defunct CoreWeekly, weekly arts and entertainment magazine, states that "The Anti-Chomsky Reader is mired in a thick haze of loathing and hard-right ideology, short on verifiable facts and long on ideologically-steeped assertions." and "As for all the weird personal defamations; they do not merit a response."
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
. Several authors contributed to it under the editorship of Peter Collier
Peter Collier (political author)
Peter Collier is a writer, and publisher. He was the founding publisher of Encounter Books in California and held that position from 1998 until he resigned in 2005, when it moved from San Francisco to New York City, and Collier was replaced as publisher by Roger Kimball. He remains a consultant...
and David Horowitz.
Contents
The Anti-Chomsky Reader contains the following articles:- Introduction by Peter Collier
- Whitewashing Dictatorship in Vietnam and Cambodia by Steven J. Morris, Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute, Johns Hopkins UniversityJohns Hopkins UniversityThe Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
, accuses Chomsky of denying repression and mass murder under the communist regimes of VietnamVietnamVietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
and CambodiaCambodiaCambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
. Morris claims that Chomsky adheres to a Marxist derived view of the Indochina wars which refuses to acknowledge the totalitarian nature of the regimes in question. - Chomsky and the Cold War by Thomas M. Nichols, chairman of the Department of Strategy and Policy, U.S. Naval War College, claims that Chomsky has distorted the history of the Cold WarCold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
in order to minimize the role of Communist ideology and blame the conflict on the United States. He accuses Chomsky of misusing sources and footnoting his books in manipulative and dishonest ways "to create a kind of pseudo-academic smog" often leading back to Chomsky's own work. He discusses a 1990 letter from Chomsky to Alexander CockburnAlexander CockburnAlexander Claud Cockburn is an American political journalist. Cockburn was brought up in Ireland but has lived and worked in the United States since 1972. Together with Jeffrey St. Clair, he edits the political newsletter CounterPunch...
which Nichols claims laments the defeat of the Soviet Union and other Communist states and movements at the end of the Cold War, particularly singling out Czech dissident Václav HavelVáclav HavelVáclav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...
for vituperation. - Chomsky and Holocaust Denial by Werner CohnWerner CohnWerner Cohn is a sociologist who has written on the sociology of Jews and of Gypsies, and political sociology. He is a Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia.He is the author of The Gypsies .-External links:****...
of Brooklyn, New York and professor emeritus of sociology at the University of British ColumbiaUniversity of British ColumbiaThe University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
, analyzes Chomsky's role in the Faurisson affairFaurisson affairThe Faurisson affair is a term given to an academic controversy in the wake of a book by Robert Faurisson, a Holocaust denier. The scandal largely dealt with the inclusion of an essay by Noam Chomsky, entitled Some Elementary Comments on the Rights of Freedom of Expression, as an introduction to...
through his connections to Faurisson's publisher La Vielle Taupe. Cohn accuses Chomsky of close connections to French anti-semites and Holocaust DeniersHolocaust denialHolocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
through this organization. Chomsky replied in Outlook. - Chomsky and 9/11 by David HorowitzDavid HorowitzDavid Joel Horowitz is an American conservative writer and policy advocate. Horowitz was raised by parents who were both members of the American Communist Party. Between 1956 and 1975, Horowitz was an outspoken adherent of the New Left before rejecting Marxism completely...
and Ronald RadoshRonald RadoshRonald Radosh is an American writer, professor, historian, former Marxist, and neoconservative. He is known for his work on the Cold War espionage case of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg and his advocacy of the state of Israel....
analyzes a speech given by Chomsky at MIT immediately after 9/11. They particularly attack Chomsky's claim that the US invasion of AfghanistanAfghanistanAfghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
was planned to result in millions of deaths, labeled by some critics as the "Silent Genocide" claim, named after his quote, "Looks like what's happening is some sort of silent genocide." They also claim that Chomsky justifies the 9/11 attacks in his speech and distorts American history to make the United States appear to be a terrorist nation. - Noam Chomsky's Anti-American Obsession by David HorowitzDavid HorowitzDavid Joel Horowitz is an American conservative writer and policy advocate. Horowitz was raised by parents who were both members of the American Communist Party. Between 1956 and 1975, Horowitz was an outspoken adherent of the New Left before rejecting Marxism completely...
, accuses Chomsky of being an anti-American ideologue who sees the United States as evil and rewrites American history accordingly. Horowitz claims that Chomsky is the intellectual source of left wing anti-Americanism today. - A Corrupted Linguistics by Robert D. Levine and Paul M. PostalPaul PostalPaul Martin Postal is an American linguist and member of the faculty of New York University.Postal received his PhD from Yale University in 1963 and taught at MIT until 1965. That year, he moved to the City University of New York...
, both professors of linguisticsLinguisticsLinguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
, claims that Chomsky's linguistic work has been largely superseded or abandoned. They also accuse Chomsky of intellectual misconduct in his linguistic writings. - Chomsky, Language, World War II and Me by John WilliamsonJohn WilliamsonJohn Williamson is the name of:* Jack Williamson , American science fiction writer* John H. Williamson , American, North Carolina politician and newspaper publisher* John N. Williamson , American, U.S...
criticizes Chomsky's linguistic work and recounts a long email debate between Chomsky and the author in which Williamson claims Chomsky repeatedly lied about his own statements and about historical facts and sources. - The Devil State: Chomsky's War Against Israel by Paul Bogdanor criticizes Chomsky's stance on Israel. Bogdanor charges that Chomsky distorts historical fact and falsely accuses IsraelIsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
of atrocities and rejectionism while downplaying Arab aggression and violence against the Jewish State.
Reviews
Keith WindschuttleKeith Windschuttle
Keith Windschuttle is an Australian writer, historian, and ABC board member, who has authored several books from the 1970s onwards. These include Unemployment, , which analysed the economic causes and social consequences of unemployment in Australia and advocated a socialist response; The Media: a...
, in a review in the conservative magazine New Criterion, states that "Collier, Horowitz, and their six other authors have produced a book that has long been needed. It provides a penetrating coverage of the disgraceful career of a disgraceful but very influential man, who has so far avoided a criticism as thoroughgoing as this."
Mark Bauerlein
Mark Bauerlein
Mark Bauerlein is an English professor at Emory University and the author of 2008 book The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future . Bauerlein earned his doctorate in English from UCLA in 1988 and has taught at Emory since 1989...
, in a generally positive review in the libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
magazine Reason
Reason (magazine)
Reason is a libertarian monthly magazine published by the Reason Foundation. The magazine has a circulation of around 60,000 and was named one of the 50 best magazines in 2003 and 2004 by the Chicago Tribune.- History :...
, claims that "Collier and Horowitz understand well the manufactured reality of political fame, and to dismantle it requires not contrary vitriol or clever rejoinders but direct, fact-based assertions that undermine the authenticity of the image. To that end, the contributors follow a simple procedure: Quote actual statements by Chomsky and test them for evidence and logic. The best contributions to the volume add the effective and timely tactic of citing Chomsky's progressive virtues and revealing how smoothly he abandons them."
Michael Leon, in a review in the now defunct CoreWeekly, weekly arts and entertainment magazine, states that "The Anti-Chomsky Reader is mired in a thick haze of loathing and hard-right ideology, short on verifiable facts and long on ideologically-steeped assertions." and "As for all the weird personal defamations; they do not merit a response."
External links
- The chapter Chomsky and Holocaust Denial is an abridged version of Cohn's book Partners in Hate: Noam Chomsky and the Holocaust Deniers.
Reviews
- The Anti-Chomsky Reader Continues a Soviet-Style Assault a critical review by Michael Leon
- The Magus of MIT Review published in National ReviewNational ReviewNational Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...
- A disgraceful career Review published in The New CriterionThe New CriterionThe New Criterion is a New York-based monthly literary magazine and journal of artistic and cultural criticism, edited by Hilton Kramer and Roger Kimball. It has sections for criticism of poetry, theater, art, music, the media, and books...
.
Response
- Reply to Werner Cohn — Noam Chomsky, Outlook, June 1989
- Chomsky and the French neo-Nazis: Some documents — Werner CohnWerner CohnWerner Cohn is a sociologist who has written on the sociology of Jews and of Gypsies, and political sociology. He is a Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia.He is the author of The Gypsies .-External links:****...
- Chomsky and the French neo-Nazis: Some documents — Werner Cohn