Global Discontents by Noam Chomsky

I am not going to lie to you, I was slightly disappointed. I really enjoyed the content of the book and what Chomsky talks about, however due to its format it seemed lazy and slightly less legitimate than if he had actually written a proper book. Chomsky decided to format this book as a transcript of several interviews he had given over the past few years so even if the content was interesting there were no footnotes or bibliographies to at least make the content SEEM more legitimate. I know that Chomsky is a renowned author, political activist, linguist, etc. so he can get away with this sort of stuff, however, I still believe that he could have made a little more effort.

Nevertheless, I found this book extremely informative and factually dense, which I enjoyed because it got straight to the point and did not waste my EXTREMELY precious time (I was reading it during my summer holidays). The format, in this case, was actually pretty useful because it meant that the information was far more ‘digestible’ and it also made it a relatively quick read!

Chomsky spoke about all sorts of current political affairs, with specific focus on the issues between Israel and Palestine as that is one of the areas he is most knowledgeable about. Another one of these areas of expertise is the US and its (negative) foreign relations and affairs. Both of these topics I am extremely curious about and I am eager to learn more, which meant that I was engrossed from cover to cover. I also found his perspective particularly interesting due to the fact that he is an anti-capitalist, an anarchist and a Jewish American that has a lot to say about and against Israel.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interesting in global politics and international relations, especially the international affairs between the US and the rest of the world. The only negative is that it wasn’t laid out like a normal non-fiction book, however this could also be seen as a positive because it was more accessible to more people as it was easier to read. Therefore, it really wasn’t THAT big of a deal. I look forward to reading more of Chomsky’s books in the future!