Noam Chomsky

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Lore & Background

Chomsky was born on December 7, 1928, in East Oak Lane, Philadelphia, to Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants William Chomsky and Elsie Simonofsky. His father fled the Russian Empire in 1913 to escape conscription, and his mother emigrated from present-day Belarus. Chomsky developed an early interest in anarchism from left-wing and anarchist bookstores he visited when seeing his uncle in New York City, writing his first article on the 1939 fall of Barcelona at age 10. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania, where he met linguist Zellig Harris in a political circle in 1947, who convinced him to major in theoretical linguistics. During his postgraduate work in the Harvard Society of Fellows from 1951 to 1955, Chomsky developed the theory of transformational grammar, earning his doctorate in 1955. That year he began teaching at MIT, and in 1957 emerged as a significant figure in linguistics with his landmark work Syntactic Structures. He created or co-created the universal grammar theory, the generative grammar theory, the Chomsky hierarchy, and the minimalist program. Chomsky also played a pivotal role in the decline of linguistic behaviorism, and was particularly critical of the work of B. F. Skinner. An outspoken opponent of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, which he saw as an act of American imperialism, in 1967 Chomsky rose to national attention for his anti-war essay 'The Responsibility of Intellectuals.' He was arrested multiple times for his activism and placed on President Richard Nixon's list of political opponents. In collaboration with Edward S. Herman, Chomsky later articulated the propaganda model of media criticism in Manufacturing Consent, and worked to expose the Indonesian occupation of East Timor. His defense of unconditional freedom of speech, including that of Holocaust denial, generated significant controversy in the Faurisson affair of the 1980s. Chomsky's commentary on the Cambodian genocide and the Bosnian genocide also generated controversy. An anti-Zionist, Chomsky considers Israel's treatment of Palestinians to be worse than South African–style apartheid, and criticizes U.S. support for Israel.

Reader's Guide

Chomsky is widely recognized as having helped to spark the cognitive revolution in the human sciences, contributing to the development of a new cognitivistic framework for the study of language and the mind. Since the 1960s, he has been an influential voice on the American Left as a consistent critic of the foreign policy of the United States, contemporary capitalism, and corporatocracy. His work in linguistics, particularly transformational and generative grammar, fundamentally reshaped the study of language and influenced philosophy and psychology. As a political activist, he has been a leading critic of U.S. foreign policy, contemporary capitalism, and mass media. His ideas remain highly influential in anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist movements. Chomsky's legacy is marked by both his foundational contributions to cognitive science and his sustained, controversial engagement with political and social issues.

Did You Know?

• Chomsky wrote his first article at age 10 about the 1939 fall of Barcelona and the suppression of the Spanish anarchosyndicalist movement.
• He was placed on President Richard Nixon's list of political opponents due to his anti-war activism.
• Chomsky's doctorate in 1955 exempted him from compulsory military service that was otherwise due to begin that year.
• He co-authored Manufacturing Consent with Edward S. Herman, articulating the propaganda model of media criticism.
• Chomsky's parents were both Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants; his father fled the Russian Empire in 1913 to escape conscription.