Chomsky: Language, Mind, and Politics (Key Contemporary Thinkers)

This book gives a good overview of much of Chomsky's life work in linguistics, philosophy and politics. What it is not is an introduction into those topics, but neither is it written in a style that is overly academic. McGilvray seeks to integrate Chomsky's linguistic and political work somewhat and with a small amount of success, suggesting that they are intertwined and of course they are to a vague degree. That angle is interesting in its own way, but luckily the author does not force his hypothesis too much, instead he does a rather good job of overviewing and summarizing the main emphases of Chomsky's work in a cohesive and enlightening fashion. Probably not a necessary read for those who have read a lot of Chomsky's own works in both fields, but for those who haven't, or for people who simply enjoy reading in politics, philosophy and/or linguistics this book should make for interesting study.