Hegemony or Survival

From the world's foremost intellectual activist, an irrefutable analysis of America's pursuit of total domination and its expected consequences.

"Intellectual activist Chomsky takes aim at the Bush administration's policy of preemptive force against terrorism and sees it as part of a US bent toward hegemony…. Chomsky offers a cautionary look at where we may be headed as a nation and the growing threats to world peace and personal freedom." —Booklist


An immediate national bestseller, Hegemony or Survival demonstrates how, for more than a half a century, the United States has been pursuing a grand imperial strategy with the aim of staking out the globe. Our leaders have shown themselves willing—as in the Cuban missile crisis—to follow the dream of dominance no matter how high the risks. World-renowned intellectual Noam Chomsky here investigates how we came to this perilous moment and why our rules are willing to jeopardize the future of our species.

With the striking logic that is his trademark, Chomsky tracks the U.S. government's aggressive pursuit of "full spectrum dominance" and vividly lays out how the most recent manifestations of the politics of global control—from unilateralism to the dismantling of international agreements to state terrorism—cohere in a drive for hegemony that ultimately threatens our existence. Lucidly written, thoroughly documented, and featuring a new afterword about the war in Iraq, Hegemony or Survival is a definitive statement from one of today's most influential thinkers.

"If . . . you have to pick just one book on the subject of the American Empire, pick this one. It's the Full Monty. It's Chomsky at his best. Hegemony or Survival is necessary reading." —Arundhati Roy

"[A] highly readable, heavily footnoted critique of American foreign policy from the late 1950s to the present. . . . Cogent and provocative . . . an important addition to an ongoing public discussion about US policy." —Publishers Weekly