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The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 330.122
EAN: 9780805079838
ISBN: 0805079831
Label: Metropolitan Books
Manufacturer: Metropolitan Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 576
Publication Date: September 18, 2007
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
Release Date: September 18, 2007
Studio: Metropolitan Books
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Editorial Review:
Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine advances a truly unnerving argument: historically, while people were reeling from natural disasters, wars and economic upheavals, savvy politicians and industry leaders nefariously implemented policies that would never have passed during less muddled times. As Klein demonstrates, this reprehensible game of bait-and-switch isn't just some relic from the bad old days. It's alive and well in contemporary society, and coming soon to a disaster area near you.
"At the most chaotic juncture in Iraq'' civil war, a new law is unveiled that will allow Shell and BP to claim the country's vast oil reserves… Immediately following September 11, the Bush Administration quietly outsources the running of the 'War on Terror' to Halliburton and Blackwater… After a tsunami wipes out the coasts of Southeast Asia, the pristine beaches are auctioned off to tourist resorts… New Orleans residents, scattered from Hurricane Katrina, discover that their public housing, hospitals and schools will never be re-opened." Klein not only kicks butt, she names names, notably economist Milton Friedman and his radical Chicago School of the 1950s and 60s which she notes "produced many of the leading neo-conservative and neo-liberal thinkers whose influence is still profound in Washington today." Stand up and take a bow, Donald Rumsfeld.
There's little doubt Klein's book--which arrived to enormous attention and fanfare thanks to her previous missive, the best-selling No Logo, will stir the ire of the right and corporate America. It's also true that Klein's assertions are coherent, comprehensively researched and footnoted, and she makes a very credible case. Even if the world isn't going to hell in a hand-basket just yet, it's nice to know a sharp customer like Klein is bearing witness to the backroom machinations of government and industry in times of turmoil. --Kim Hughes
The bestselling author of No Logo shows how the global free market has exploited crises and shock for three decades, from Chile to Iraq
In her groundbreaking reporting over the past few years, Naomi Klein introduced the term disaster capitalism. Whether covering Baghdad after the U.S. occupation, Sri Lanka in the wake of the tsunami, or New Orleans post-Katrina, she witnessed something remarkably similar. People still reeling from catastrophe were being hit again, this time with economic shock treatment, losing their land and homes to rapid-fire corporate makeovers.
The Shock Doctrine retells the story of the most dominant ideology of our time, Milton Friedman s free market economic revolution. In contrast to the popular myth of this movement s peaceful global victory, Klein shows how it has exploited moments of shock and extreme violence in order to implement its economic policies in so many parts of the world from Latin America and Eastern Europe to South Africa, Russia, and Iraq.
At the core of disaster capitalism is the use of cataclysmic events to advance radical privatization combined with the privatization of the disaster response itself. Klein argues that by capitalizing on crises, created by nature or war, the disaster capitalism complex now exists as a booming new economy, and is the violent culmination of a radical economic project that has been incubating for fifty years.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Socialist Propaganda and Misrepresentation
From Johan Norberg, "The Klein Doctrine."
Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine purports to be an exposé of the ruthless nature of free-market capitalism and its chief recent exponent, Milton Friedman. Klein argues that capitalism goes hand in hand with dictatorship and brutality and that dictators and other unscrupulous political figures take advantage of "shocks"--catastrophes real or manufactured--to consolidate their power and implement unpopular market reforms. Klein cites Chile under ... Read More
Rating: - A Poor and Dishonest Effort
Naomi Klein dishonestly cherry picks her anecdotes in her efforts to disparage Economist Milton Friedman, and what Adam Smith dubbed the "Natural System of Liberty" (otherwise known as free market capitalism). While capitalism has its share of critics, and critical literature - this particular work traffics almost entirely in inaccuracy and hyperbole.
Rating: - Not a Good Book
It's not a very good book. Among other things, Klein conflates Friedman's libertarianism with those of other movements, such as corporatism, merchantilism, and neoconservatism. It's not well (or even honestly) argued.
For example, she claims Friedman was a "neoconservative". One can argue about what exactly "neoconservatism" entails, but on domestic policy they are quite often in favor of significant government intervention in the economy and the lives of citizens, hardly the position ... Read More
Rating:  - Wow!
Wow! And all along I thought the Bush administration was filled with inept, blundering fools. The truth is much darker and scarier. To realize that there is an actual logic/philosophy behind their actions that ties the past 8 years together was a shocking and sickening revelation. And that the roots go much deeper into the 1950's. Articulate, damning, forceful....it was truly a shocking doctrine to read, but one all Americans should read before November 2008.
Rating: - Shockingly Powerful
The late Milton Friedman, the renowned economist, believed that democracy and a free-market economy went hand-in-hand, that the greatest threat to both was nationalization, government regulation, and social spending. He preached this philosophy to his disciples at the University of Chicago School of Economics, and they would go forth spreading the Gospel according to the Book of Milton.
There is also the International Monetary Fund, an agency founded after World War II to help struggling ... Read More
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