Chomsky effect: a radical works beyond the Ivory Tower

Noam Chomsky has been praised by the likes of Bono and Hugo Chavez and attacked by the likes of Ton Wolfe and Alan Dershowitz. Ground-breaking linguist and outspoken political dissenter-voted most important public intellectual in the world today in a 2005 magazine poll, Chomsky inspires fanatical devotion and fierce vituperation. In The Chomsky effect,Chomsky biographer Robert Barsky examines his subjects positions on a number of highly charged issues, Chomskys signature issues, including Vietnam, Israel, East Timor and his work in linguistics-that illustrate not only the Chomsky effect but also the Chomsky approach. Chomsky, writes Barsky, is an inspiration and a catalyst. Not just an analyst or advocate, he encourages people to become engaged, to be dangerous and challenge power and privilege. The actions and reactions of Chomsky supporters and detractors and the attending contentiousness can be thought of as the Chomsky effect. Barsky discusses Chomskys work in such areas as language studies, media, education, law and politics and identifies Chomskys intellectual and political precursors. He charts anti-Chomsky sentiments as expressed from various standpoints, including contemporary Zionism, mainstream politics and scholarly communities. He discusses Chomskys popular appeal, his unlikely status as punk and rock hero (Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam is one of many rock and roll Chomskyites) and offers in-depth analyses of the controversies surrounding Chomskys roles in the Faurisson Affair and the Pol Pot Affair. Finally, Barsky considers the role of the public intellectual in order to assess why Noam Chomsky has come to mean so much to so many and what he may mean to generations to come.