Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance (The American Empire Project) (original 2003; edition 2004)

by Noam Chomsky

Series: The American Empire Project

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Mentions
3,058	21	4,447	(3.91)	21
In this book Noam Chomsky offers an analysis of America's pursuit of total domination and the catastrophic consequences that follow. The United States is in the process of staking out not just the globe but the last unarmed spot in our neighborhood-the heavens-as a militarized sphere of influence. Our earth and its skies are, for the Bush administration, the final frontiers of imperial control. In Hegemony or survival, Noam Chomsky investigates how we came to this moment, what kind of peril we find ourselves in, and why our rulers are willing to jeopardize the future of our species. Chomsky dissects America's quest for global supremacy, tracking the U.S. government's aggressive pursuit of policies intended to achieve "full spectrum dominance" at any cost. He lays out how the various strands of policy-the militarization of space, the ballistic-missile defense program, unilateralism, the dismantling of international agreements, and the response to the Iraqi crisis-cohere in a drive for hegemony that ultimately threatens our survival. In our era, he argues, empire is a recipe for an earthly wasteland.… (more)

▾Book information

Member:	wgrosse
Title:	Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance (The American Empire Project)
Authors:	Noam Chomsky
Info:	Owl Books (2004), Paperback, 301 pages
Collections:	Your library
Rating:
Tags:	None

Work Information

Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance by Noam Chomsky (2003)

all members

▾Members

Recently added by	LTSandboxPelican, elur10, Anthony_Nunez, lafstaff, rcabbott1949, LeiasHylla, domansell, szopinski, theomeros01
Legacy Libraries	Osama bin Laden

▾Tags

▾LibraryThing Recommendations

▾Lists

LT picks: Blue Books (75)

Blue Pyramid 1,276 Best Books of All Time (817)

▾Will you like it?

▾Conversations (About links)

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 21 mentions

▾Member reviews

English (18) Spanish (1) Dutch (1) Swedish (1) All languages (21)

date ▼ | votes

Showing 1-5 of 18 (next | show all)

paperback

SueJBeard | Feb 14, 2023 |

Hegemony or Survival demonstrates how, for more than half a century the United States has been pursuing a grand imperial strategy with the aim of staking out the globe. Noam Chomsky investigates how we came to this perilous moment and why our rulers are willing to jeopardize the future of our species.

riselibrary_CSUC | Aug 24, 2020 |

The title refers to Chomsky's belief that the world has two mutually exclusive options: American global hegemony, or the survival of the human race. The premise is interesting, but gets bogged down in the academic intelligentsia style of writing--it's off putting and not conducive to casual reading for big picture understanding. Maybe if it weren't an audio book, one could read and skim without assault. Long parenthetical phrases and big words sag the story. This, from a linguistics professor/professional. The book was written in 2004 and the liberal, left leaning, academic author bashes Bush (W) right off and doesn't stop there. Seems like every body who ever drove the beltway is at fault. Multiple case studies are used to defend the points he's making; they get old after awhile. Liking a book of this type usually depends upon where you stand politically but I couldn't get past the writing style and tone. I'll not read another Chomsky book. (

)

buffalogr | Dec 19, 2015 |

Noam Chomsky, a well-known left-wing academic, writes here about globalization’s political impact as a main point of the U.S. foreign policy. Political economics is very sensitive subject, but Chomsky in this book attacks as he argues that U.S. foreign policy has been imperialist and heavy handed since World War I. He speaks of that in the invasion of Iraq, and elsewhere, the U.S. disregarded the U.N. as well as public opinion at home and abroad. Chomsky makes important points, but I feel he would have a larger and politically more diverse audience if he developed a more detailed andd less harsh sounding writing style, provided more background on some events he covers, particularly America’s political and military interventions. He is provocative, harsh and very negative about the U.S. even calling us a “terrorist state.” For me despite beliefs very different from my own this book helped me to gain more and a better insight into our country’s politics (

)

Elliot1822 | May 2, 2013 |

i do love chomsky but i have to admit that i got through this because of pure determination and wanted to finish it for finishing its' sake. it was very good- i just don't want to pretend that i breezed through. it took a lot of me reminding myself that i had a goal of completing it. ha ha! but i swear, it was worth it. (

)

julierh | Apr 7, 2013 |

date ▼ | votes

Showing 1-5 of 18 (next | show all)

▾Published reviews

1 review

add a review

thingScore 25

His work is dense and filled with non sequiturs (here he seeks to use the Cuban missile crisis to explain the Iraq war, which is a little like using the first Moon landing to explain the dotcom boom). He claims to confront the comfortable with uncomfortable facts they don't want to face. Yet his audience is primarily a comfortable Western audience.

added by mikeg2 | editThe Guardian, Nick Cohen (Dec 14, 2003)

▾Other authors

» Add other authors

▾Series and work relationships

Belongs to Series

The American Empire Project

Belongs to Publisher Series

Penguin Celebrations (22)

▾Awards and Honors

view history

▾Common Knowledge

You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.

For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.

Canonical title

Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance

Original title

Alternative titles

Original publication date

2003

People/Characters

Important places

Important events

Related movies

Epigraph

Dedication

First words

A few years ago, one of the great figures of contemporary biology, Ernst Mayr, published some reflections on the likelihood of success in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

Quotations

Last words

Information from the Swedish Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Original language

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (3)

Monroe Doctrine

Vasili Arkhipov

Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2007 May 1

▾Book descriptions

In this book Noam Chomsky offers an analysis of America's pursuit of total domination and the catastrophic consequences that follow. The United States is in the process of staking out not just the globe but the last unarmed spot in our neighborhood-the heavens-as a militarized sphere of influence. Our earth and its skies are, for the Bush administration, the final frontiers of imperial control. In Hegemony or survival, Noam Chomsky investigates how we came to this moment, what kind of peril we find ourselves in, and why our rulers are willing to jeopardize the future of our species. Chomsky dissects America's quest for global supremacy, tracking the U.S. government's aggressive pursuit of policies intended to achieve "full spectrum dominance" at any cost. He lays out how the various strands of policy-the militarization of space, the ballistic-missile defense program, unilateralism, the dismantling of international agreements, and the response to the Iraqi crisis-cohere in a drive for hegemony that ultimately threatens our survival. In our era, he argues, empire is a recipe for an earthly wasteland.

▾Library descriptions

No library descriptions found.

▾LibraryThing members' description

Book description

Haiku summary