Culture of Terrorism

By (author) Noam Chomsky

Publication date:

20 September 2015

Length of book:

336 pages

Publisher

Pluto Press

ISBN-13: 9781783712410

Chomsky ends his preface to Culture of Terrorism with the words, 'As the latest inheritors of a grim tradition, we should at least have the integrity to look in the mirror without evasion'. The tradition to which he is referring is none other than the Western imperial project and in encouraging Americans to pursue integrity, he dissects the events of just one year - 1986 - at the height of the Reagan Era and describes American involvement in acts of supreme state terror, both open and clandestine, to present a case study which has great relevance today and whose lessons must never be forgotten.

Preface to the 2015 Edition
Preface
Introduction: The Public and State Violence
Part I: The Scandals of 1986
1. The Challenge
2. The Cultural-Historical Context
3. The Problems of Clandestine Terrorism
4. The Limits of Scandal
5. The Culture of Terrorism
6. Damage Control
7. The Perils of Diplomacy
8. The Reality That Must be Effaced: Iran and Nicaragua
Part II: Further Successes of the Reagan Administration
9. Accelerating the Race toward Destruction
10. Controlling 'Enemy Territory'
11. Freedom of Expression in the Free World
Part III: The Current Agenda
12. The Threat of a Good Example
13. The Fledgling Democracies
14. Restoring Regional Standards
15. Standards for Ourselves
16. Prospects
Notes
Index

'Infused with the anger of a truly moral man ... powerful, always provocative stuff.'