How the World Works

According to The New York Times, Noam Chomsky is "arguably the most important intellectual alive.” But he isn't easy to read . . . or at least he wasn't until these books came along. Made up of intensively edited speeches and interviews, they offer something not found anywhere else: pure Chomsky, with every dazzling idea and penetrating insight intact, delivered in clear, accessible, reader-friendly prose. Published as four short books in the famous Real Story series-What Uncle Sam Really Wants; The Prosperous Few and the Restless Many; Secrets, Lies and Democracy; and The Common Good-they've collectively sold almost 600,000 copies. And they continue to sell year after year after year because Chomsky's ideas become, if anything, more relevant as time goes by. For example, twenty years ago he pointed out that "in 1970, about 90% of international capital was used for trade and long-term investment-more or less productive things-and 10% for speculation. By 1990, those figures had reversed.” As we know, speculation continued to increase exponentially. We're paying the price now for not heeding him them.

Auteur

Noam Chomsky is the most famous social critic in the world. Lionized abroad, his ideas are marginalized here-except in linguistics, where they've revolutionized the field. According to MIT and the Chicago Tribune, he's the most cited author in the last two decades and is the eighth most cited source of all time (only surpasssed by Marx, Lenin, Shakespeare, Aristotle, the Bible, Plato, and Freud). Born in 1928, he's taught at MIT for more than 50 years.

David Barsamian is an Armenian-American radio broadcaster, writer, and the founder and director of Alternative Radio, a Colorado-based syndicated weekly public affairs program.

Arthur Naiman wrote, co-authored, edited, designed and/or published more than thirty nonfiction books. In each of those categories, his books have sold over a million copies.