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The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

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The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (Hardcover)

by Naomi Klein (Author)

4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (36 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Hardcover: 672 pages
Publisher: Knopf Canada (Sep 4 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0676978002
ISBN-13: 978-0676978001
Product Dimensions: 23.5 x 15.8 x 4.2 cm
Shipping Weight: 998 g

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (36 customer reviews)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #6,616 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Popular in these categories:

#5 in	Books > Professional & Technical > Accounting & Finance > Economics > Free Enterprise
#5 in	Books > Nonfiction > Economics > Free Enterprise
#5 in	Books > Business & Investing > Economics > Free Enterprise

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Product Description

Amazon.ca

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

From Publishers Weekly

The neo-liberal economic policies—privatization, free trade, slashed social spending—that the Chicago School and the economist Milton Friedman have foisted on the world are catastrophic in two senses, argues this vigorous polemic. Because their results are disastrous—depressions, mass poverty, private corporations looting public wealth, by the author's accounting—their means must be cataclysmic, dependent on political upheavals and natural disasters as coercive pretexts for free-market reforms the public would normally reject. Journalist Klein (No Logo) chronicles decades of such disasters, including the Chicago School makeovers launched by South American coups; the corrupt sale of Russia's state economy to oligarchs following the collapse of the Soviet Union; the privatization of New Orleans's public schools after Katrina; and the seizure of wrecked fishing villages by resort developers after the Asian tsunami. Klein's economic and political analyses are not always meticulous. Likening free-market shock therapies to electroshock torture, she conflates every misdeed of right-wing dictatorships with their economic programs and paints a too simplistic picture of the Iraq conflict as a struggle over American-imposed neo-liberalism. Still, much of her critique hits home, as she demonstrates how free-market ideologues welcome, and provoke, the collapse of other people's economies. The result is a powerful populist indictment of economic orthodoxy. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Customer Reviews

36 Reviews

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

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4.0 out of 5 stars (36 customer reviews)

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84 of 90 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Valuable and Captivating Polemic, Oct 1 2007

By	E. Haensel (Toronto) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

Regardless of your current beliefs regarding free-market capitalism, I believe that most people who actually read this book, (which many of the previous reviewers clearly haven't) will find it to be an important and well-researched book.

This book can be seen as the alter-ego book to Thomas Friedman's 'The World is Flat', covering many of the same issues and specific case studies. Friedman is clearly approaching free-market globalization from an optomistic and appreciative perspective, Klien clearer believes that neo-liberal economics have been imposed on countries around the world against their will, and to great detriment to human well-being.

Whatever your political persuation, anyone who has thouroughly read both books will recognize that the 'Shock Doctrine' boasts far more supportive research, to go along with the journalistic interview that form the bulk of the actual text, than Friedman's. Additionally, Klien display's a much more accurate understanding of the technicalities of capitalism than Friedman, probably due to her education at the London School of Economics. Furthermore, whereas Friedman's book reads as a summary of the ideas the have graced the cover of many large newspapers and television shows (Friedman himself works for the New York Times) Klien perspective is novel.

Clearly, this book is a polemic, it contains strong language and makes a strong argument for a particularily damning evaluation of the role of American Academics, the American Government, and many American Foundations in the forced undercutting of democracy around the world for the purpose of creating unpopular neo-liberal make-overs.

But, beyond the political arguments, which I believe are very strong, Klien rings a perspective on such historical events such as the Fall of Communism in Russia, the Dictatorship in Argentina, the Currency Crises in South East Asia that are unknown in North America. Not only does she tell, and rigurously support through documentation, an incredible behind the scenes exposition of past events, she also provides quotes of the status-quo account, including writters such as Friedman, from major news sources and goverment officials.

As a history student who has studied many of these events, and has spent years learning how to evaluate historical source material, I must say I was shocked by the amount of information that I did not know. I went so far as to look into some of the source material Klien uses and found that most of it stands up to the highest academic standards. Of course, as with any journalistic book, some of the details of the accounts come from single interview sources, and must be taken with a grain of salt.

Overall, Shock Doctrine is an incredible book that is easy to read, if stylistically reduntant at times, captivating and incredibly important as an alternative to the corporate media that supplies most of the information that North Americans recieve about world events and history. The documentation of the privatization of the American Security and rescue industry after September 11th, 2001; as well as the mess of corperate misconduct in Iraq is worth the price of the book times ten all in itself. Importantly, many of the statistics and figures that Klien quotes, and there are many, are directly from Government sources, (burried in the middle of a Congressional Hearing, official contract or thosand page restructuring document), while many of the most candid guiding statements are from such people as George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Paul Bremmer, Donald Rumsfield...and the list continues.

A stunning book that reads with the energy of a murder mystery and will shake up the way you think about the history of free-market capitalism, as well as the history of CIA funded torture, a major milestone of which took place in Montreal and McGill University.

Even if you believe in free-market capitalism, you can still enjoy this book. More than an argument against a particular system, it is a call for democracy, justice, and fair debate in all forms of political change.

And a note to anyone turned off by a previous reviewers commentary about "leftist only hating capitalist dictators and so on..) Klien spares none of her viciferous anger when discussing the crimes of Stalinist Russia, Mao, or any other leftist dictator. But, the point is that these figures are a) known to the public for their crimes, and b) do not represent a idealogy that is continuing to do violence to people around the world.

That is what makes this book so relevant, all the issues she discusses are important right now.

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51 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You'll either love it or hate it, Sep 21 2007

By	M. Stolte - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Depending on where you sit on the political spectrum, this is a book you are going to love or hate. Personally, I think Naomi Klein does an excellent job providing a historical lens on some high level political and economic decisions that are being made (largely) behind closed doors. She brings these ideas to the surface where they can be openly debated and I applaud her for that. After all, that is what makes for healthy democracy.

Having living in Korea during the "Asian flu" of 1997-98 I can honestly say that her synopsis of what happened there was exceedingly accurate; and there was no doubt in my mind that the West genuinely took advantage of a country in need to create "trade advantage", force public downsizing, and to force open borders to foreign investment. No matter what you think of her politics, this is definitely worth reading, and I for one, am the better informed for it. Thank you Ms. Klein!

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31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars De-construction of that past 30 years, Oct 14 2007

By	James Natu "James" (Toronto, ON, Canada) - See all my reviews

Economics is the bed-rock of society, and has precipitated more than a few political ousters. But what if economic shock therapy and regimes the world around were inherently linked?

This is the subject of Naomi Klein's latest novel.

The Shock Doctrine is a whirlwind look at history through the eyes of a dominant school of economic thought, the University of Chiacgo. It goes from South America to Europe, eventually returning home to America in cataloguing the effects of the Chicago School. By extending the Nobel-prize winning Amnesty International Human Rights report on General Pinochet's Argentianian torture regime, it adds necessary context that North Americans have lost out on.

It all came down to a flood of funding to free market think tanks from companies opposed to FDR's Keynesian New Deal, and from the lack of competition from the fall of Communism; she talks about the lack of funding and lack of a Marshall Plan for post-Soviet Russia and post-Saddam Iraq. As any free market-er knows, competition is the foundation for a healthy and innovative market.

Klein happens upon an important idea called the "Davos Dilemma", which contradicts the idea that global trade would bring world peace. She ties this in to the lack of progress in peace between the Israelis and Palestinians since the 1990s, linking that to the burgeoning homeland security bubble that Israel now offers the world with the slogan, "it's our birthright".

In the end, she says no conspiracies are required. It all comes down to companies doing their jobs, to profit their shareholders. The problem is in governments relinquishing their jobs to act in the public interest to companies with countervailing interests.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book for linking . There are many reviews here from people who seemed to only read the back cover of the novel and think of it as an attack on Milton Friedman, rather than what the book really is: an enticing journalistic examination of the Chicago school and it's fruits. Simply put, 30 years of free market history shows that imposing solutions on people is not democratic and is not even pragmatic. What does this book tell us of human nature? Whatver we choose, goes.

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Most recent customer reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, solid book, but really needed a good edit.
I absolutely loved Klein's No Logo, and while I did not turn it into a personal bible and start attending anti-WTO protests, I was intrigued enough by her conclusions that her... Read more

Published 1 month ago by Jason A. Martin

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read
This book is brilliantly written. It is a masterpiece of truth exposed. Naiomi Klein has exposed that which most people fear or even would rather not know. Read more

Published 3 months ago by J. Wolska