Noam Chomsky

Engage with one of the most formidable and important minds of the modern era with Noam Chomsky, the American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, and political critic widely regarded as the world’s most cited living intellectual. Born in Philadelphia in 1928, Chomsky revolutionised the field of linguistics with his theory of transformational-generative grammar — the idea that the capacity for language is innate to the human mind — and in doing so helped establish the foundations of modern cognitive science. But it is his decades of fearless, rigorously documented political criticism that has made him a towering and controversial figure in public life. His landmark work Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (co-authored with Edward S. Herman) exposed the mechanisms by which corporate media serves the interests of power, and remains one of the most important works of media criticism ever written. Other essential works include Hegemony or Survival, Failed States, Who Rules the World?, Profit Over People, Necessary Illusions, and Chomsky on Anarchism. Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how power really works — and what we can do about it.