Noam Chomsky's Views on Anarchism

Jackie: Fine copy and delivery.

United Kingdom on Nov 01, 2023

Ryan: The biggest takeaway from Chomsky’s book is how wide one’s mind becomes to alternative structures. With historical analysis and examples, Chomsky’s book reveals Anarchism as a truly just and equal system for all!

Australia on Jan 05, 2023

B J: Great book. Pretty quick read. The topics kind of bounce around so for a full appreciation it would be good to have a foundational knowledge of historical events that Chomsky references, namely the anarchist revolution in Barcelona in 1936-1939.

United States on Feb 17, 2021

callisto: 5 sehr unterschiedliche Essays, die alle irgendwie um das Thema Freiheit kreisen und jeweils Teilaspekte des Anarchosyndikalismus und Anarchismus beleuchten.
Es wird dabei aber Teil Wissen um Literatur vorausgesetzt, die man halt nicht unbedingt hat. Wirklich mühsam ist "Objectivity of liberal Scolarship" in welchem Chomsky eine Veröffentlichung zur Spanischen Revolution ziemlich detailliert auseinander nimmt. Ohne Vorkenntnisse mühsam und kaum verständlich, zumal zumindest in Deutschland, in Geschichte nichts über die Anarchosyndikalistische Phase in den nun separatistischen Regionen Spaniens gelehrt wird. Auf den Zusammenhang zwischen der Anarchosyndikalistischen Phase vor Franko und den heutigen Separationsbewegungen geht Chomsky leider nicht ein.
Das Interview über seine Kindheit ist gut und nett zu lesen. Der Essay Language und Freedom behandelt einige Klassiker wie Humbold oder Russeau und deren Anarchistische Ansätze.

Man kann die Essays einzeln lesen, die hängen nicht zusammen. Kein wirkliches Buch über Anarchismus, das zusammenhängend Geschichte, Ursprung und Philosphie erklärt, aber wer Chomsky mag, ein durchaus wertvoller Beitrag.

Germany on Sep 30, 2020

WeAreWhatWeRead: One could do worst than to be introduced by Noam Chomsky to the subject of anarchism. This little book does that job brilliantly. Funny how after all these years, there are still so many morons out here who have no idea of what it actually means to be an anarchist - and that's mostly the people who call themselves anarchists!
But I would advise any reader not to expect a perfect book, or even one thoughtfully put together. It's a a hatchet job. An awful introduction by some dude, followed by a haphazard collection of Chomsky's old essays plus transcripts of some Q&A session. My 5 stars are for content, NOT form. I'd say, take what you like from it and discard the rest. The best part is the superb in-depth explanation of what exactly it means, to be an anarchist. You can just ignore the parts you might not be so interested in, the study of the Spanish Civil War for example; the book is cheap enough to skip or forget parts of it, if such is your wont.
For a beginner in all things anarchist, this book is an excellent place to start. And then some. I would argue that it's actually enough on its own, because it will get you thinking... for the rest of your thinking days....

United Kingdom on Jun 20, 2018

Joey: A no nonsense, exceptional work from Chomsky (as usual) that gives a great introductory to Anarchism, looks back into the Spanish revolution, inspiring optimistic direct action for all the wage slaves to abolish this unsustainable wage slavery system of Humans ruling humans with unique contributions towards Anarchist thought and all around philosophy.

United States on Mar 06, 2017

Siriam: The other reviews have highlighted some of the key problems with this book being selection of essays from over last 40 years (1969 onwards) so not wholly current, plus while a general connection exists around the issues of and understanding how anarchism might work in practice, overall the wide variety of ideas on show defeats the book being a well structured or logical read on the subject.

The key problem for me as a general reader wanting to learn more is that in a number of cases the essays and content are simply too dense to easily communicate the ideas under consideration. The badly written introduction by Nathan Schneider or the final Chomsky essay "Language and Freedom" being a treatise on linguistics and philosophy which requires a pretty in depth initial understanding of both subjects to start to understand the points being made, are the two worst examples.

Offsetting this are an excellent essay from 1969 on how "liberal" historians have treated the anarchist movement in the Spanish Civil War (given the great output of books since 1969 on this topic, especially across the last 20 years, the essay cries out for an Updated footnote by Chomsky which has sadly...

United Kingdom on Jun 01, 2016

R. Cardona: Great introduction to Chomsky's flavor of anarchism: anarcho-syndicalism. The first chapter covers the definition and history. The second and fourth are some really interesting Q&A format dicussions. The third one details an essay Chomsky wrote when he was younger discussing anarchism in the Spanish civil war. The last chapter discusses Freedom and Language which connects a bit to his work on linguistics. I highly recommend it!

United States on Apr 06, 2015

Christopher: Fantastic reader and intro into basic ideas that animate capitalism as well as socialism and beyond. This is not am intro into political theory however and is meant as a condensed version of Chomsky's more expanded works like "Understanding Power." So if you think you understand anarchy or socialism and think its a vapid idea or just want to learn more, please consider this book. You cannot walk away from reading "On Anarchism" without understanding more about yourself and our world. Highly Recommended--I never buy anything but I bought this!

United States on Jan 17, 2014

kookie womblat: Unless your interest in this book is purely academic analysis of political systems, I assume you have some leanings in its direction. If so, you know that anarchy has a bad rep; I've seen it equated with 'chaos' in crossword puzzles. Chomsky acknowledges this early on and refutes it; he takes us back to the original goals of anarchy, devoid of people who riot and throw bricks through windows, the goals of individual freedom, economic equality and democracy built from the ground up.
The book consists of five chapters; each taken from a previously published work. Although copyright 2013, the earliest chapter is from 1969, the latest @2002.
The first is an essay entitled 'Notes on Anarchism' and is just that; a wide variety of thoughts, with quotes from others, as to just what true anarchism is, and is not. The second chapter, excerpts from Understanding Power, is worth the price of the book. A question and answer session (Chomsky giving the answers) seemingly in a group setting with various people raising the essential questions of anarchism (tension of collectivism vs. individual freedom etc.) Chomsky gives a magnificent tour-de-force performance in replies. He also mentions...

United States on Jan 12, 2014