Chomsky and Robinson range across the globe, offering penetrating accounts of Washington's relationship with the Global South, its role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - all justified with noble stories about humanitarian missions and the benevolent intentions of American policymakers. The same kinds of myths that have led to repeated disastrous wars, they argue, are now driving us closer to wars with Russia and China that imperil humanity's future. Examining nuclear proliferation and climate change, they show how US policies are continuing to exacerbate global threats.

For well over half a century, Noam Chomsky has committed himself to exposing governing ideologies and criticizing his country's unchecked use of military power. At once thorough and devastating, urgent and provocative. The Myth of American Idealises offers a highly readable entry to the conclusions he has come to after a lifetime of thought and activism.