Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent

281 Pages·1998·2.83 MB·English

by  Robert F. Barsky

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Noam Chomsky

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Noam Chomsky addressing a crowd at the University of Victoria, 1989.

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Noam Chomsky
A Life of Dissent
Robert F. Barsky
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England

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First MIT Press paperback edition, 1998
© 1997 ECW PRESS
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or
mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without
permission in writing from the publisher.
This book was set in Sabon by Asco Trade Typesetting Ltd., Hong Kong.
Printed and bound in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Barsky, Robert F.
Noam Chomsky: a life of dissent/Robert F. Barsky.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-262-02418-7 (hc: alk. paper), 0-262-52255-1 (pb)
(cid:151) (cid:151)
1. Chomsky, Noam. 2. LinguistsUnited StatesBiography. I. Title.
P85.C47B37 1997
(cid:151)
410'.92dc20 96-29013
[B] CIP
Photographs: Cover (1989), frontispiece (1984), and illustrations 18, 24, 25 (1989), © Elaine Brière;
illustration 1 (1992), © Donna Coveney, is used by permission of Donna Coveney; illustrations 2, 3, 4,
6, 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21,22,23, 26, © Necessary Illusions, are used by permission of Mark
Achbar and Jeremy Allaire; illustrations 5, 8, 9, 10 (1995), © Robert F. Barsky; illustration 17 (1995),
© Sydney Barsky; illustration 27 (1990), © Derek Roger, is used by permission of Derek Roger.
Published in Canada by ECW PRESS.

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CONTENTS
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
I The Milieu That Formed Chomsky 1
Introduction 3
1 Family, Hebrew School, Grade School 9
2 Zellig Harris, Avukah, and Hashomer Hatzair 47
3 Humboldt and the Cartesian Tradition 95
II The Milieu Chomsky Helped to Create 117
4 The Intellectual, the University, and the State 119
5 The Intellectual as Commissar 165
Conclusion 201
Afterword 219
Notes 227
Works Consulted 229
Index 237

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To Sam Abramovitch and Noam Chomsky, and the "good society" that
they have described to me

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ILLUSTRATIONS
Vancouver Island, 1989 cover
University of Victoria, 1989 frontispiece
1. Staff photo taken at MIT, 1992
2. Chomsky as an infant
3. Chomsky, age 8, and brother David, age 3, 1936
4. Chomsky, age 12, and his parents outside of Gratz College/Mikveh Israel School, 1940
5. Chomsky's office at MIT
6. Living Marxism
7. Chomsky, age 16, at his high-school graduation
8. Zellig Harris
9. Events in Montreal reported in Avukah Student Action
10. Chomsky at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton, 1959
11. Chomsky's review of the work of B. F. Skinner, in the NYRB, 1971
12. Chomsky giving a political talk in the 1960s
13. A report concerning Nixon's "enemy" list
14. South End Press
15. Chomsky debating Michel Foucault, with Fons Elders as intermediary, 1971
16. Building 20 at MIT
17. Chomsky attending a talk
18. Robert Faurisson
19. The Faurisson affair
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20. Letters from Noam Chomsky
21. Chomsky at his summer cottage in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, 1986
22. David Barsamian and Chomsky
23. Kyoto Basic Sciences Awards ceremony, 1988
24. Chomsky speaking in Nanaimo, British Columbia, 1989
25. Chomsky receiving a piece of Native art in British Columbia, 1989
26. The Chomsky family
27. At the pub in Govan, Scotland, 1990

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