Requiem for the American Dream

“A primer in Chomsky’s analysis of the faults of the American political and economic system. Taking as its backbone the idea that ‘a significant part of the American Dream is class mobility: You’re born poor, you work hard, you get rich,’ Chomsky systematically documents the many ways the system is rigged from top to bottom to ensure that corporations always win.” —Bill Moyers

“Since Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century, income inequality has not been novel material for a book. Nevertheless, the latest book from famed activist and linguist Chomsky (Who Rules the World?) seems fresher than almost any title on the subject in recent memory. The book, based on the documentary of the same name, is a compilation of interviews that the film’s directors conducted with Chomsky from 2011 to 2016. Chomsky observes the present-day United States with such lucid clarity that readers may feel they are viewing familiar terrain for the first time. He offers a ’10 Principle’ formula for how plutocratic interests operate (Principle No. 7 is ‘Engineer Elections’; Principle No. 3 is ‘Redesign the Economy’). Chomsky observes that much of what made the 1950s and ’60s the ‘Golden Age’ of the U.S. economy was that, at the time, what was good for General Motors really was good for America: ‘When the U.S. was primarily a manufacturing center, it had to be concerned with its own consumers.’ Chomsky also touches, fascinatingly, on subjects as diverse as ‘the psychology of nagging’ (as employed by the advertising industry) and the disappearing sense of solidarity in our civic life. Chomsky and his collaborators have created a perceptive and revelatory examination of the forces driving America inequality.” —Publishers Weekly

“Noam Chomsky in Requiem for the American Dream directs the fierce light of his intellect on the utopian ideology of neoliberalism, the absurd idea that markets should dictate all aspects of human society. He dissects the disastrous consequences of this ideology for our society, culture, and politics. He explains how corporations indoctrinated the public, academia, and the mass media to sign on for a project that has devastated the lives of working men and women and obliterated the common good. Every promise made by the proponents of neoliberalism is a lie. Its power to write its own laws and regulations, Chomsky points out, has ultimately created a mafia economic system and a mafia political system that is exemplified in the rise to power of the demagogue Donald Trump.” —Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt

“While many books attempt to explain how we got to this political moment (some successfully), Noam Chomsky’s latest, Requiem for the American Dream, provides necessary historical context. Zooming in on ten ways that government and corporate interests have kept the American people down, Chomsky offers a compelling history that explains today’s economic and political landscape. At 157 pages, it’s a short, beautifully put together book.” —Huffington Post