Hopefully the starry-eyed introduction by Pantheon editor Peck ("In all American history, no one's writings are more unsettling than Noam Chomsky's") won't drive readers away from this otherwise intelligent compilation of representative writings by noted linguist and political radical Chomsky. A fascinating interview of Chomsky by Peck precedes the essays, position papers, and lectures--many revised here, some never before published--in which Chomsky focuses his iconoclastic brilliance on social and political issues ranging from the Vietnam War (opposition to which catapulted Chomsky into national prominence), the role of intellectuals in society, Skinnerian psychology, Central America, and Mideast tensions, to name a few.
