Noam Chomsky has been one of the most important figures in linguistics and semiotics.

His ideas dealt a severe blow to behavioural theories of language, especially those advocated by B. F. Skinner. But, in addition, Chomsky has been an activist, a thinker and an intellectual who has reflected on how power and inequality have an impact on the way we perceive the world.

Anyone who wants to delve into this author’s thinking would do well to start with his writings, so we have made a selection of Noam Chomsky’s best books for restless minds.

Books by Noam Chomsky in Spanish

This is a selection of Chomsky’s most important, relevant and accessible books.

1. Fear of Democracy

In this book, Chomsky points out various thought-control mechanisms that favour a vision of the world in which the foreign policy of the United States is perceived as a task of protecting the reign of peace, whatever happens and however violent the actions promoted may be. Through its pages he dissects the style of patriotic propaganda being promoted in the United States and the impact it has on the population’s thought patterns.

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2. How the World Works

One of Noam Chomsky’s books offers a general overview of the transnational forces that, according to this thinker, are driving the great changes on a planetary level and the great cultural transformations that have taken place recently.

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3. On power and ideology

For Noam Chomsky, the role of ideology has a determining weight in our way of understanding the world , either in a general way or in its smallest details. In this book, a series of conferences are gathered about a double tendency that characterizes us: to generate beliefs and provisional theories about how reality is from very little information and, at the same time, to reject very clear and evident data that we frequently come across.

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4. Illusionists

A unique case in which Noam Chomsky preferred to publish a Spanish edition of the book rather than its English version . In Illusionists, Chomsky sets out his concerns about what are the main obstacles to the development of a scenario in which people can live with equal rights and guaranteed minimum standards of well-being. Among them are the ease with which large corporate networks can manage countries from the shadows, the pressure from lobbies to push laws and overthrow others without going through the electoral system, and globalization.

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5. The culture of terrorism

In line with other books by Noam Chomsky, this one too reviews the strategies followed by the United States to justify military interventions in the name of peace. In this case, it focuses on the Reagan administration and its war against a non-existent enemy, “global communism”, which allowed it to operate directly on much weaker sovereign territories. A work reminiscent of the frenzy described in George Orwell’s novel 1984.

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6. Human nature: justice versus power

The book in which is offered the transcription of one of the most interesting debates of those broadcasted on television : a dialogue between Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault. In this book they present their philosophical positions and, from there, develop their vision of geopolitics, culture and the nature of inequalities.

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7. Hopes and realities

In the pages of this work, Chomsky explains what is the basis of the different political and economic failures and crises that have occurred in the world in recent decades , and also points out where the most promising ingredients of change can be found from the point of view of activism.

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8. Profit is what counts: neoliberalism and global order

One of Chomsky’s books in which the author focuses more on analyzing neoliberalism as a global phenomenon . Here he reflects on the incompatibility between the principles of democracy and the logics from which the market operates, the necessary relationship between the creation of wealth in neoliberalism and the maintenance of a state that defends its own interests, and the way in which great fortunes are capable of making the world change without exposing themselves to the vote of the people.

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9. Chomsky essential

This book contains texts by Chomsky in which we can recognize the main brushstrokes of his thought in relation to various themes. A good option for people looking for an introductory book to Noam Chomsky’s thought .

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10. Reasons for Anarchy

Here we find a series of texts by Chomsky in which the thinker explains why the great economic and political problems must be tackled from a collectivist and anti-authoritarian point of view . In the pages of Reasons for Anarchy his leftist thinking is very much expressed.

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Other books by Noam Chomsky

These are some of Chomsky’s books that are not available in Spanish but can be obtained in English .

11. Language and mind

A summary of Chomsky’s views on language and semiotics. to see the evolution of his thinking in the field that made him famous.

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12. Secrets, lies and democracy

In this book Chomsky talks about the mechanisms used by the great oligarchies to influence politics without being questioned, the totalitarian nature of states and why this feedback mechanism explains the growth of inequality.

  • The book is available here.

Are you interested in recommending other works by Chomsky?

If you have read other books and writings by Chomsky and are interested in making them known and recommending them, you can do so in the comments section. In turn, if you are very interested in this author and want to go deeper into his work, you can see the recommendations of others to choose your reading depending on your areas of interest .

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