American Power and the New Mandarins

Historical and Political Essays

Noam Chomsky

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American Power and the New Mandarins is Noam Chomsky’s first political book, widely considered to be among the most cogent and powerful statements against the American war in Vietnam. Long out of print, this collection of early, seminal essays helped to establish Chomsky as a leading critic of United States foreign policy. These pages mount a scathing critique of the contradictions of the war, and an indictment of the mainstream, liberal intellectuals—the “new mandarins”— who furnished what Chomsky argued was the necessary ideological cover for the horrors visited on the Vietnamese people.

As America’s foreign entanglements deepen by the month, Chomsky’s lucid analysis is a sobering reminder of the perils of imperial diplomacy. With a new foreword by Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States, American Power and the New Mandarins is a renewed call for independent analysis of America’s role in the world.

Noam Chomsky is professor of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A world-renowned linguist and political activist, he is the author of numerous books, including Manufacturing Consent, The Fateful Triangle, Deterring Democracy,and Reflections on Language. Howard Zinn is professor emeritus at Boston University. He is the author of numerous books, including A People’s History of the United States, the award-winning Declarations of Independence, and Failure to Quit, as well as a recent memoir, You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train.