The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism | 
 enlarge | Author: Naomi Klein
Publisher: Picador
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
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Rating:  341 reviews
Sales Rank: 236
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 720
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.5 x 1.4
ISBN: 0312427999
Dewey Decimal Number: 330.122
EAN: 9780312427993
ASIN: 0312427999
Publication Date: June 24, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com 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
Product Description
In this groundbreaking alternative history of the most dominant ideology of our time, Milton Friedman's free-market economic revolution, Naomi Klein challenges the popular myth of this movement's peaceful global victory. From Chile in 1973 to Iraq today, Klein shows how Friedman and his followers have repeatedly harnessed terrible shocks and violence to implement their radical policies. As John Gray wrote in The Guardian, "There are very few books that really help us understand the present. The Shock Doctrine is one of those books."
Book Description
In her ground-breaking reporting from Iraq, Naomi Klein exposed how the trauma of invasion was being exploited to remake the country in the interest of foreign corporations. She called it “disaster capitalism.” Covering Sri Lanka in the wake of the tsunami, and 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. By capitalizing on crises, created by nature or war, Klein argues that 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 336 more reviews...
 Very Important Book January 8, 2009
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A great composite history of neoliberal political economy and the ways it has been instituted worldwide.
The Truth Hurts as an American January 6, 2009
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book truly broke my heart. I believed that the United States was the shining beacon on the hill, a light for all to see and aspire to. I learned that we are not. We have been a participant in every ugly war and battle that has stolen freedom from others that has ever occured. We have stolen what is good in other cultures and mad it ugly. We have done this in the name of money and power. We have been guilty of these crimes inspite of the pretty propaganda slogans and powerful words we have chosen to believe are true. Martin Friedman's economic drives that led to the undoing of the economies and cultures of most of South America during the 1970's and 1980's, including Chile, Peru, Nicaragua, Panama, Brazil and Argentina, not to mention the damage done to Africa and other lands, among others, will remain a stain on the trustworthiness of the people of the United States for ever and ever and ever into the future. Read this book and learn why this is true.....And if you dare to believe this is not true, read it and tell me how it is not so....
understand capitalism and how the markets affect everyday life January 6, 2009
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I read this book last spring and was both fascinated and appalled at what I learned. This book is a thoroughly documented chronology of the implementation of Friedman free market economics theory and the methods and extent in which economists have gone to implement this theory into working practice. The author spotlights numerous historical incidents that our media glossed over and in many instances completely misrepresented. This book opened my eyes to some of the things that have been happening without the general public's consent or knowledge. There's an elite group of politicians and economists that are driving the markets and implementing policies that are truely to the detriment of the general populace and aimed at solidifying corporate control of our government, laws, and tax dollars for their benefit and wealth. after reading this book you'll better understand the motivation of the TARP "bailouts" as well as Myanmar Governments' refusal of assistance after the devastating cyclone that hit that country. I consider this book a MUST READ and bought 4 more copies for family for Christmas presents.
 A re-packaging of ideas expressed better elsewhere January 2, 2009
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
Like Malcolm Gladwell, Naomi Klein is expert in taking well-established, complex ideas and reducing and re-packaging them as if they were her own. Brilliant marketing, but not deep thinking. Still, a decent introduction to the concept, but if you want to know more, just google "creative destruction" or look up Friedrich Nietzsche, Mikhail Bakunin, or Joseph Schumpeter. Also Werner Sombart's War and Capitalism: "again out of destruction a new spirit of creativity arises".
Read This Book If You Enjoy Malicious Drivel December 27, 2008
6 out of 15 found this review helpful
This book is neoliberal propaganda which libels and intentionally distorts the great Milton Friedman beyond all recognition.
The real "Shock Doctrine" is the shocking ability of libs like Klein to fabricate blatant lies to further their agenda of repressive government tyranny.
Indeed, the next crisis will be the complete meltdown of the U.S. economy resulting from the debasement of the dollar by Bush and Obama. The solution we choose will determine whether we are going down the road to serfdom, or shaking off the final grasping tenacles of socialism. I would hope we will embrace the precious freedom we inherited from our founding fathers and protected by the sacrifices of our brave service men and women.
However reading reviews by the kool-aid drinkers, I am not optimistic that we have learned the important lessons which Friedman taught. I fear we will repeat the mistakes of the past and suffer for generations. This will be most tragic for our children and grandchildren.
Milton Friedman was a kind and benevolent man who is largely responsible for the spread of freedom, democracy and free markets around the world.
It is ironic that Klein claims that Friedman's policies made Chile worse off! Actually Chile is rated as the eighth most free country in the world economically. But the reviewer faults Chile with having unequal income distribution -- just like the U.S. Never mind that the poorest folks who live in freedom are more prosperous than the richest in Marxist "utopias" like Klein adores.
http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/countries.cfm
For a more comprehensive review see the excellent essay: The Klein Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Polemics
by Johan Norberg. http://www.cato.org/pubs/bp/bp102.pdf
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