Noam Chomsky called the book "far and away the best book on the topic."
John Stockwell described it as "[t]he single most useful summary of CIA history",
Ramsey Clark said it was a "valuable contribution", and
International Security's Teresa Pelton Johnson wrote: "Blum has performed a very important service in collecting this information in one place, and the documentation is praiseworthy."
Ted Dace said
Killing Hope is "[a] good, long look in the mirror". Reviewing the earlier version of the book in 1986,
Choice's R. H. Immerman wrote: "By falling prey to the same
Manichean absolutism that has hamstrung US global policies, Blum has compromised the credibility of his work. He has nevertheless produced a valuable reference for anyone interested in the conduct of US foreign policy, including graduate students and general readers." In the
London School of Economics Review of Books in 2014, LSE doctoral researcher Julia Muravska unfavorably compared
Killing Hope with the work of academic historians such as
William Keylor, stating that Blum's criticism of the U.S. occurs in an historical vacuum without any consideration for Soviet actions that "would have also helped the reader understand what drove the US foreign policy decisions that today's citizens find so morally repugnant." She said that much of the book is "heavily and meticulously footnoted," said the 2014 edition's "The American Empire Post-Cold War" chapter has "unsubstantiated claims" and shallow analysis, saying that "Blum relies on ...
RT to make his case" regarding the post-2014
Russo-Ukrainian War. == Editions ==