SOURCE: “Institutional Structure Blues,” in New York Times Book Review, April 13, 1986, p. 28.

In the following review, Tonelson offers unfavorable assessment of Turning the Tide, citing flaws in Chomsky's polemical tone and unwillingness to propose viable alternatives to the contemporary foreign policy he condemns.

Today, in the flush of the Reagan era, it is easy to forget America's debt to the New Left scholars and writers who have explored the dark side of American history, politics and foreign policy. This loosely knit band of thinkers has been much less successful, however, at turning its findings into a convincing wholesale indictment of current American public policies, much less a sound program for the future. The strengths and weaknesses of the New Left's approach are all showcased in Turning the Tide, a broadside against the United States record in Central America and around the world written by the Massachusetts Institute of...