Hegemony or Survival

America's Quest for Global Dominance

By: Noam Chomsky

Narrated by: Brian Jones, Noam Chomsky

Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

For more than half a century, the United States has been pursuing a grand imperial strategy with the aim of staking out the globe. Our leaders have shown themselves willing, as in the Cuban missile crisis, to follow the dream of dominance no matter how high the risks. Now the Bush administration is intensifying this process, driving us toward the final frontiers of imperial control, toward a choice between the prerogatives of power and a livable Earth. 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.

Lucid, rigorous and thoroughly documented, Hegemony or Survival is Chomsky's most urgent and sweeping work in years. Certain to spark widespread debate, it is a definitive statement from one of the world's most influential political thinkers.

©2003 Aviva Chomsky, Diane Chomsky, Harry Chomsky (P)2003 Audio Renaissance

Critic reviews

"Judged in terms of the power, range, novelty, and influence of his thought, Noam Chomsky is arguably the most important intellectual alive." (The New York Times)
"In this highly readable...critique of American foreign policy from the late 1950s to the present...Chomsky brings together many themes he has mined in the past, making this cogent and provocative book an important addition to an ongoing public discussion about U.S. policy." (Publishers Weekly)

Another well-researched book

I recommend this book to all concerned Americans. The main thesis of the book is that the United States (and the world), not for the first time in history, is facing a choice between the short-term goals of global domination, power, and hegemony in general, or the long-term fight for survival of the human species.

He outlines this by reviewing the history of US intervention in the world, mostly available from his older books, and adding new information: he details the post-9-11 change in American policy, like the new Imperial Grand Strategy, the build-up to the Iraq War, commentary on the Afghanistan bombing, as well as new light shed on the Cuban Missile Crisis. His writing is supported by his research, very rich in detail, sometimes requiring one to rewind the paragraph and listen multiple times to achieve clarity. His morality is quite simple when discussing the subject, namely the truism of universality, "judging ourselves by the same standards we apply to others." The conclusions are quite different than those you will hear in the mainstream--the US is the leading terrorist state, the media are subservient to centers of power, and the goals of state-corporate power are making the world worse, not safer, for our survival.

As stated before, recommended to all concerned Americans for analysis of what should be done in the future for a better world.

Read and open your mind

Everyone should read this book, you do not have to agree with the information provided but, it is about time that the world realised that there are always two sides to a story and not swallowed what the state and media feed to us. The easy way out is to claim that it is anti-American but, that is not what it is all about ... the actions of a state are not necessarily representative of its' population.

Personally, I found the whole book very distressing because it left me with a real feeling of sadness about the horrors that we, as human beings, heap on ourselves and our environment. It left me wanting to know more and wanting to do more ... despite a feeling of complete uselessness in the face of state power. This, I would imagine, was the goal that Noam Chomsky seeks ... ask and seek more information.

Matrix Made In America - A Second Perspective

It's "ok" if you wish to swallow any constructed reality whole - the American Media, gulp - the "Compassionate Conservative" agenda, gulp - Our role as a beacon to global democracy, gulp. But when gulpable feels more like gullible isn't it time we say, "I know what I know with the information I've received, but I'll listen to a different perspective." What do you have to fear, but a possible truth that doesn't sit well in the grand scheme of things. You can always ignore or deny it later if you wish - or dismiss it all together.

Chomsky's Genius

A well laid-out historical overview of America's terrorist policies that have been carried out in the name of security and national defense while masking the nation's elites greed for global dominance.

Clarity in our foreign policy over past 100 years

Chomsky gives a blow by blow type of recapitulation of the U.S.'s foreign policy from the events leading up to the Cuban Missile Crisis to our current war in Iraq. It's hard not to see the inconsistencies in the policies we hold when one decade any given people are considered terrorists (supported or not by the U.S.) and the next decade they are labeled as "freedom fighters" for "democracy". Also it's difficult to ignore the Big Money connection to our foreign policy, and Chomsky does very well to mention those influences.

Having listened to John Adams Biography recently, it smacks in similarity to the power and manipulation that France exercized in American Independence. When you strip away the nobility and glory that 8th grade American history texts give to our own Revolution, America's independence was 'granted' by France more so that America would be an economic and small political resource for Frances plan of hegemony. Nomsky implies that the US's foreign policy is no more interested in other countries (Irag, Nicaragua, Cuba etc.) gaining "democracy" than France was interested in the nobel act of freeing America.

Flaws: The narrator speaks a bit too quickly for some of Chompsky's powerful statements. The book is not broken into chapters, so it's one continuous read (listen).

You Cannot Ignore This

I have this in hardcopy. I just downloaded it: it's almost too much too take in. Not that the author does not provide clear and thorough references--I almost wish he didn't so I could just blow most of it off! The scope of what he reveals as to what our "current" administration (some of them also worked for Nixon) is doing and how long the process has been active boggles my mind. I am not a genius. Thank God for geniuses. I will listen repeatedly until I shoehorn the SCOPE of this into my head.

This might shock some: I have been registered Republican since I could vote. In my small northern town, we stood up for small business-persons. We kept local & state pols honest. That was then.
This whole bit with Enron, Halle-Burton, etc. carving up Iraq and Haiti is NOT Republican! It is NOT Democratic! I live in Florida: if not for Jeb[!] Bush we would still have SURPLUS (did you enjoy your $300 tax refunds?!)
Oh yeah, as of 3/11/2004 Osama is BACK while Georgie was off stomping some made-up threat who just happened to irritate Poppy ten years back. Our way of life is in serious jeopardy FROM WITHIN!
Nuff Preaching. Just Get It!

Interesting, but...

This is typical Chomsky, which I can appreciate. He is well-informed, and the content is generally interesting. I tried to imagine how I might perceive this novel as a person with a conservative bent, and I, perhaps fantastically, concluded that even if I were to dismiss it as Anti-American dribble, I would hope that I could appreciate what his examples suggest about power, survival, and controlling processes in general. Finally, what the #^%#& was the narrator thinking? His pace is way too fast at times. You may want to load up on caffeine or use a listening device that allows you to slow down playback.

Not light reading

Would you listen to Hegemony or Survival again? Why?

Chomsky is one of the greatest minds of our time. But his writing is very stream-of-consciousness. You have to pay attention, but if you do, you'll be rewarded with great insight.

This particular book was a damning criticism of US hegemony. Though he never takes sides outright, it is obvious from the tone that Chomsky sees the United States' strongarm techniques with regard to world dominance in a not-so-positive light.

Opened my eyes.

Has Hegemony or Survival turned you off from other books in this genre?

No

If you could give Hegemony or Survival a new subtitle, what would it be?

How and why the United States dominates the world.

eye opening

Awesome experience. Noam Chomsky presents a different face of the US, simultaneously showing the strong scholarship within the same system that challenges it.

Acceptable Reading of a Book Written for An Uncritical Audience

The reader isn't exactly inspired, but he gets the job done. Chomsky's facts are correct, but his mostly incisive analysis is riddled with uncharitable readings and at times downright non sequiturs. An example is using FBI Director Moeller's testimony about the 9/11 hijackers 8 months after 9/11 to show we did not know who perpetrated the attacks in the weeks after. These caused me to doubt other discussions on events I'm less informed about. That said, everything I checked on Wikipedia corroborated Chomsky's facts, but usually not his boorish moralizations. I'd heard Chomsky was a well-respected writer on these topics, so I expected more from him.