Requiem for the American Dream

The Principles of Concentrated Wealth and Power

By: Noam Chomsky

Narrated by: Donald Corren

Length: 3 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

Noam Chomsky is widely regarded as the most influential thinker of our time, but never before has he devoted a major book to one topic: income inequality.

"During the Great Depression, things were much worse than they are today, but there was an expectation that things were going to get better. There was a real sense of hopefulness. There isn't today.... Inequality is really unprecedented. In terms of total inequality, it's like the worst periods in American history. But if you refine it more closely, the inequality comes from the extreme wealth in a tiny sector of the population, a fraction of 1 percent.... Not only is it extremely unjust in itself, inequality has highly negative consequences on the society as a whole because the very fact of inequality has a corrosive, harmful effect on democracy."
(Noam Chomsky, in Requiem for the American Dream)

Requiem for the American Dream is not an essay collection but an entire work of some 70,000 words, based on four years of interviews with Chomsky by the editors. Chomsky considers these to be his final, long-form documentary interviews. It is a book that makes Chomsky's breadth and depth accessible and at the same time gives us his most powerful political ideas with unprecedented, breathtaking directness. It will go down as one of his greatest and most lasting contributions.

Requiem for the American Dream is being produced in tandem with the film of the same name that was recently released in selected theaters to rave reviews and standing ovations. It will be on Netflix and touring colleges prior to the book's release.

©2017 Valeria Chomsky (P)2017 Recorded Books

Book is great, Narrator is terrible

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Definitely. Very insightful analysis with support from historical references. But I would recommend that they read this book rather than listen to Donald Corren narrate.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

This book really doesn't have an "ending", just a scholarly analysis of various points.

How could the performance have been better?

By choosing anyone else as the narrator. Book itself & content is excellent. However, the narrator frequently substitutes words that change the meaning ("was" for "is", etc.). In fact there is such a substitution in the very first sentence of the forward note ("subjectively" for "objectively"). Clearly, no review was done of the Audible recording.

Did Requiem for the American Dream inspire you to do anything?

Read more books by Noam Chomsky, and never to listen another book narrated by Donald Corren.

Any additional comments?

Another narrator should be found, and the narration should be re-recorded using a new narrator. Noam Chomsky would be a good choice to narrate this book.

Important read

The fundamental knowledge for an American political revolution. Read more Chomsky to have a better understanding of the world u live in. Peace.

Great book and movie.

Watched movie on yt the other night and saw on here that they had a book that went into a little more detail. book adds sources and quotes chomsky cites in interview which was nice. Overall good compliment to the movie.
Movie was more entertaining, it was highly dramatized; Book is more like a typical chomsky interview, both were A+
This guy is excellent at explaining our current situation and the time we inhabit, would recommend both audiobook and movie to anyone.

Must read or listen

I had no idea about justice Powell find it interesting the Nixon administration gave us Justice Powell and started allowing business with China the act which in my opinion has done more to make us a society of wage slaves. Both political parties are on the side of the corporations who fund their campaigns who greatly benefit from low wages and uninformed voters and consumers making Irrational decisions

Excellent analysis of the present American reality

Book version of the documentary Requiem for the American Dream
Very well structured and well written.
Important references give support to the conclusions
Highly recommended for those interested In understanding the American today reality

A Perspective Worth Considering

In this day and age people can no longer say, "I didn't know". Enlighten yourself

Chomsky Excellent As Always

Always a learning experience reading Noam Chomsky.
I highly recommend this book if you like the truth.

Essential Chomsky

A great window into the mind of this era's one of the most celebrated intellectual.

Documents how US plutocracy oppresses citizens

I have read/listened to this book, in my case Audible and Kindle versions
twice, and plan to read it again. This book, an expanded, edited version
of the documentary by the same name is an important and well put together
compendium of Noam Chomsky's ideas on America's political order. It is
an important book to read if you are concerned about contemporary trends
with American politics and the 99%.

Many of Chomsky's ideas are in opposition to conventional thinking that they
seem strange at first, and take a while to sink in. This book is Chomsky distilled,
a concise clear summary of ideas most of us are too busy to think about or too
distracted to perceive, the "red pill" that clues the reader in to see the "Matrix".
Agree or disagree, you will never see this country the same way.

Noam Chomsky has spent his lifetime studying history and current events and
has passed on his insights in over 100 books and countless lectures, but this
book is an edited collection of the main criticisms of American politics. Our
system calls itself democratic, but works by keeping working citizens out of
the loop; without the information, tools and connections to understand our
common interests as citizens to fulfill the promise of our Constitution. Chomsky
shows that 85% of government policies go against what the people want when
they are polled.

An important point in this book is how in our society/economy we are
trained in what Chomsky calls the "vile maxim", morally evil rules of conduct
as being normal. The vile maxim is described as "All for ourselves and
nothing for anyone else" or care only for yourself and forsake all others.
How this is programmed and promulgated in our country makes the difference
between the US and the rest of the developed world - widening gulf.

We've ended up with a morally bankrupt society that harms many of its people
while telling them they live in the greatest country in the world and pay to have
our military secure resources and power for the tiny elite who do not serve the
interests of the American people. In other developed countries they have
sustainable social systems that support and help their people, and their citizens
are better off than Americans on many dimensions while our media tells us the
opposite.

The book is put together in elegant order, well written; a handbook for understanding
the American tragedy. The "plutocrats" have worked efficiently to direct wealth and
power to the top and to disempower citizens and trick them with propaganda.

The Audible version is done well. The reader's voice is a bit harsh and cold
reminiscent of a college lecturer, but it is clear and the sentences are clear
and intelligible.

Requiem For The American Dream by Noam Chomsky 5/5

the documentary with footnotes

this book did well at representing the whole of Chomsky's works which was summarized in this book and the documentary by the same title. the book I found (though much of the words used are quite the same as that of the documentary) to be better than the documentary because it came with the footnotes from which his information is founded which is important to reinforce points and help clarify some daunting questions.