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Birth of Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky was born on December 7, 1928, in the East Oak Lane neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His mother Elsie (nėe Simonofsky) emigrated from Belarus to the United States in 1906, while his father William Chomsky left Ukraine for the United States in 1913. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_G0ILhcMGeI -
The Prodigal Son
Chomsky was a brilliant child, and his curiosities and intellect were kindled greatly by his early experiences. Chomsky felt the weight of America's Great Depression. He was raised with a younger brother, David, and he witnessed injustices all around him. -
Developing Philosophy
Chomsky described his parents as "normal Roosevelt Democrats" who had a center-left position on the political spectrum; he was exposed to far-left politics through other members of the family, a number of whom were socialists involved in the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. -
Major Works
In the 1950s he revolutionized the field of linguistics by treating language as a uniquely human, biologically based cognitive capacity. Chomsky helped to initiate and sustain what came to be known as the “cognitive revolution.” Chomsky also gained a worldwide following as a political dissident for his analyses of the pernicious influence of economic elites on U.S. domestic politics, foreign policy, and intellectual culture.
