This influential cultural study of postwar Britain offers pertinent truths on mass communication and the interaction between ordinary people and the elitesLists such as this occasionally face difficult,even impossible, choices. In 1957, or a 100-page monograph by a brilliant young American linguist,a book regularly nominated for an automatic plot in contemporary “most influential” and contemporary classic” selections, was published by a small Dutch publishing house (Mouton & Co) in the Hague.
The text in question is Syntactic Structures, or “part of an attempt to construct a formalised general theory of linguistic structure”. Its author,Noam Chomsky, celebrated as the founder of contemporary linguistics, and is one of the foremost public intellectuals of the age,and the fierce conscience of progressive America, acclaimed as much for his polemics against US foreign policy as for his theories approximately language and mind. Related: My hero: Richard Hoggart by DJ Taylor Some of his most memorable passages attack the “mass publicists” destroying close-knit neighbourhood communitiesContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com