SOURCE: “Impassioned Advocate,” in The Progressive, Vol. 55, No. 10, October, 1991, pp. 39-43.

In the following review, Rothschild offers positive evaluation of Deterring Democracy, though he cites weaknesses in Chomsky's tendency toward conspiracy theory and contradictory portrayal of the American public's relationship to the media.

Noam Chomsky is the leading dissident in the United States. For twenty years, he has provided the most coherent left-wing analysis of U.S. foreign policy and the most trenchant critique of the mainstream media.

Though Chomsky has become almost a cult figure on campuses and in many progressive circles, he is a serious scholar and an impassioned advocate of human rights and genuine democracy. He's no sham artist: he's the genuine article—a person morally outraged at the cruel policies and blatant hypocrisies of his native land.

Chomsky's latest work, Deterring Democracy, is a fine introduction to his theories. The essays in this book...