Noam Chomsky

Chomsky first rose to public prominence for his vocal opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, which he saw as an act of American imperialism. In 1967, he attracted widespread public attention for his antiwar essay "The Responsibility of Intellectuals". Becoming associated with the New Left, he was arrested multiple times for his activism and U.S. President Richard Nixon placed him on his Enemies List. While expanding his work in linguistics over the coming decades, he also became involved in the linguistics wars. In collaboration with Edward S. Herman, Chomsky later co-wrote Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, which articulated the propaganda model of media criticism, and worked to expose the Indonesian occupation of East TimorEast Timor. Additionally, his defense of freedom of speech--including Holocaust denial--generated significant controversy in the Faurisson affair of the early 1980s. Since retiring from active teaching, Chomsky has continued his vocal political activism, including opposing the War on Terror and supporting the Occupy movement. One of the most cited scholars in history, Chomsky has influenced a broad array of academic fields. He is widely recognized as a paradigm shifter who helped spark a major revolution in the human sciences, contributing to the development of a new cognitivistic framework for the study of language and the mind. In addition to his continued scholarly research, he remains a leading critic of U.S. foreign policy, neoliberalism and contemporary state capitalism, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and mainstream news media. His ideas have proved highly significant within the anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist movements, and have also drawn criticism, with some accusing him of anti-Americanism.