Sometimes when the American drive toward autocracy is getting you down, you just have to give yourself over to Uncle Noam. This book lets you know you’re not alone in your sense of horror. It focuses on America’s role in the world in the early 2000s. The running theme—that American exceptionalism is a highfalutin term that excuses all manner of American sin—is supported by clear-eyed historical context and what Chomsky calls “simple truths.”
The picture that Chomsky paints of American power and justice is somewhat bleak, with U.S. governments always returning to their “just-war theories” and corporations underwriting conflict, but the accuracy of the critique is hard to argue. Viggo Mortensen was right in Captain Fantastic: we should all celebrate Uncle Noam’s birthday every Christmas. Reviewed on Nov. 25, 2021