Chomsky Book Sales Soar After Chavez Speech

Posted on September 22, 2006

Venezualan president Hugo Chavez's endorsement has propelled Noam Chomsky's book, Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance to the top of Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble's bestseller lists.

At the start of his talk Wednesday, during which Chavez referred to President Bush as "the devil," Chavez held up a book by Noam Chomsky, "Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance," and recommended it to everyone in the General Assembly, as well as to the American people. "The people of the United States should read this ... instead of the watching Superman movies," Chavez later told reporters.
As of Thursday afternoon, "Hegemony or Survival," originally published in 2003, had jumped into the top 10 of Amazon, where it was ranked 20,664 the day before, and Barnes & Noble.com, from a previous ranking of 748. Metropolitan Books, an imprint of Henry Holt, has ordered an additional paperback printing of 25,000 copies.
Chomsky, the famed 77-year-old linguist, has long been an opponent of U.S. foreign policy. His many books include "9-11," a best-selling collection of interviews, and "Failed States," which came out last spring.

Chavez is apparently laboring under the mistaken idea that Chomsky is dead. He's not -- he's just not taking calls right now.

"All the media hoopla -- I don't know what else to call it -- is not entirely pleasant," said Chomsky's wife, Carol, who picked up the phone at the couple's Lexington home after just one ring today. "Noam is flooded, absolutely flooded." The problem, she said, and the likely reason her husband of 56 years would not return our call, is the nature of the questions Chomsky is being asked. They're not serious enough, she said.
"Everyone wants to know what his reaction is," Carol Chomsky said. "And that's on the level of gossip and of no consequence at all."
Speaking to The New York Times yesterday, Noam Chomsky told the paper "I continue to work and write," correcting Chavez, who mistakenly said while speaking at the UN that Chomsky was dead.

Andrew Bacevich, a professor of history and international relations at Boston University has also written books that are critical of U.S. foreign policy and wanted to know "Why couldn't Hugo Chavez hold up one of my books?"