eShop USA > Books > The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
List Price: $16.00Our Price: $9.60 You Save: $6.40 (40%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Save $10.00 when you spend $50.00 or more on qualifying items offered by Amazon.com. Enter code BMLSAVES at checkout.
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 327
EAN: 9780312427993
Edition: 1st
ISBN: 0312427999
Label: Picador
Manufacturer: Picador
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 720
Publication Date: June 24, 2008
Publisher: Picador
Release Date: June 24, 2008
Studio: Picador
Related Items: Featured Listmania!
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
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."
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
Related Categories:
|
