In his 2012 book Occupy – a short study on the social, economic and political inequalities that led to the Occupy movement – Noam Chomsky noted the importance of active reading:
“Reading a book doesn’t mean just turning the pages. It means thinking about it, identifying parts that you want to go back to, asking how to place it in a broader context, pursuing the ideas. There’s no point in reading a book if you let it pass before your eyes and then forget about it ten minutes later. Reading a book is an intellectual exercise, which stimulates thought, questions, imagination.”
As one of the world’s preeminent public intellectuals and anarchist theorists, Chomsky has dedicated a lifetime to the study of complex philosophical issues and real-world problems. Culled from his many important political writings by the Chomsky List, find 12 books on activism recommended by Noam Chomsky below.
New Left: A Collection of Essays by Priscilla Long
Days and Nights of Love and War by Eduardo Galeano
The Essays of A.J. Muste by A.J. Muste
Cochabamba!: Water Rebellion in Bolivia by Oscar Olivera and Tom Lewis
Revolutionary Movement in Britain, 1900-21 by Walter Kendall
SNCC: The New Abolitionists by Howard Zinn
The American Socialist Movement 1897-1912 by Ira Kipnis
The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community by David Korten
Political repression in modern America from 1870 to the present by Robert Justin Goldstein
Sir! No Sir! – The Suppressed Story of the GI Movement to End the War in Vietnam by David Zeiger
The New Student Left: An Anthology by Mitchell Cohen and Dennis Hale
The Women are Marching: Second Sex and the Palestinian Revolution by Philippa Strum
(via The Chomsky List)