Background

Noam Avram Chomsky was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on December 7, 1928. He received his early education at Oak Lane Country Day School and Central High School, Philadelphia. He continued his education at the University of Pennsylvania where he studied linguistics, mathematics, and philosophy. In 1955, he received his Ph. D. from the University of Pennsylvania, however, most of the research leading to this degree was done at Harvard University between 1951 and 1955. Since receiving his Ph. D., Chomsky has taught at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he now holds the Ferrari P. Ward Chair of Modern Language and Linguistics. Noam was married to Carol Schatz on December 24, 1949 and has two children.

Between 1945 and 1950 Chomsky was a student at the University of Pennsylvania and began his study of linguistics. During this time, he proofread Zellig Harris’s Methods in Structural Linguistics and developed a sympathy for Harris’s ideas on politics. He was also a student of Nelson Goodman, the radical-empiricist philosopher. In 1951, he accepted nomination by Goodman as a Junior Fellow to Harvard University. In 1953, Chomsky traveled to Europe. En route, he resolved that his attempt to formalize structural linguistics would not work because language was a highly abstract generative phenomenon. Determined that his further work should concern models of this phenomenon.

Chomsky has made his reputation in linguistics. He learned some of the historical principles of linguistics from his father, William, who was a Hebrew scholar. In fact, some of his early research, which he did for his Masters, was on the modern spoken Hebrew language. Among his many accomplishments, he is most famous for his work on generative grammar, which developed from his interest in modern logic and mathematical foundations. As a result, he applied it to the description of natural languages. As a student, Noam was heavily influenced by Zellig Harris, who was Professor of Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania. It was Chomsky’s sympathy to Harris’s political views that steered him toward work as a graduate student in linguistics.

Noam has always been interested in politics, and it is said that politics has brought him into the linguistics field. His political tendencies toward socialism and anarchism are a result of what he calls "the radical Jewish community in New York." Since 1965 he has become one of the leading critics of U.S. foreign policy. He published a book of essays called American Power and the New Mandarins which is considered to be one of the most substantial arguments ever against American involvement in Vietnam.

Professional Positions

Have something to add here? Please edit this page!

Accomplishments

Member of the American Academy Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.

Writer of books on lingustics and politics

POLITICS:

Essays on the Current Crisis and How We Got There

(1983). The Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians

(1985). Turning the Tide : U.S. intervention in Central America and the Struggle for Peace

(1986). Pirates and Emperors: International Terrorism in the Real World

(1986). The Race to Destruction: Its Rational Basis

(1987). The Chomsky Reader

(1987). On Power and Ideology

(1987). Turning the Tide: the U.S. and Latin America

(1988). The Culture of Terrorism

(1988). Language and Politics

(1988). Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (with Edward Herman)

(1989). Necessary Illusions

(1991). Terrorizing the Neighborhood

(1992). What Uncle Sam Really Wants

(1992). Chronicles of Dissent

(1992). Deterring Democracy

(1993). Letters from Lexington: Reflections on Propaganda

(1993). The Prosperous Few and the Restless Many

(1993). Rethinking Camelot: JFK, the Vietnam War, and U.S. Political Culture

(1993). World Order and Its Rules: Variations on Some Themes

(1993). Year 501: The Conquest Continues

(1994). Keeping the rabble in Line

(1994). Secrets, Lies, and Democracy

(1994). World Orders, Old and New

(1996). Powers and Prospects: Reflections on Human Nature and the Social Order

(1996). Class Warfare

(1997). One Chapter, The Cold War and the University

(1997). Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda

(1998). The Common Good

(1999). The Umbrella of US Power

(1999). Latin America: From Colonization to Globalization

(1999). Acts of Aggression: Policing "Rogue" States (with Edward W. Said)

(1999). The New Military Humanism: Lessons from Kosovo

(1999). Profit over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order

(1999). The Fateful Triangle (updated edition)

(2000). Chomsky on Mis-Education (edited by Donaldo Macedo)

(2000). A New Generation Draws the Line: Kosovo, East Timor and the Standards of the West

(2000). Rogue States: The Rule of Force in World Affairs

(2001). Propaganda and the Public Mind

(2001). 9-11

(2002). Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky

(2002). Chomsky on Democracy and Education (edited by C.P. Otero)

(2002). Media Control (Second Edition)

(2002). Pirates and Emperors, Old and New: International Terrorism in the Real World

(2003). Power and Terror: Post-9/11 Talks and Interviews

(2003). Middle East Illusions: Including Peace in the Middle East? Reflections on Justice and Nationhood

(2003). Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance

(2003). Znet article, Deep Concerns http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=3293

(2004). Getting Haiti Right This Time: The U.S. and the Coup (with Paul Farmer and Amy Goodman)

(2005). Chomsky on Anarchism (edited by Barry Pateman)

(2005) Government in the future. Seven Stories Press. ISBN 1583226850. Text of the lecture given at the Poetry Center, New York, February 16, 1970.

(2005). Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post-9/11 World

(2005). The Impetious Imperialist

(2006). Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy

(2006). Perilous Power. The Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy. Dialogues on Terror, Democracy, War, and Justice (with Gilbert Achcar)

(2007). Interventions (2007). What We Say Goes: Conversations on U.S. Power in a Changing World

Criticism

Chomsky receives criticism from many right wing economists such as Murray Rothbard for his Anarcho Syndicalism.

Additional Information

Chomsky is very respected and has been honored numerous times in the academic arena. He has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of London and the University of Chicago, as well as having been invited to lecture all over the world. In 1967, he delivered the Beckman Lectures at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1969, he presented the John Locke Lectures at the University of Oxford and Sherman Memorial Lectures at the University of London.

Noam Chomsky is an Anarcho Syndicalist, calling for the abolition of hierarchy in all its forms and a socialized economy, formed by cooperating trade unions and workplace democracy.

Biography Links

Have something to add here? Please edit this page!