Author:Naomi Klein Binding: Paperback Published: 2008-06-24 ISBN: 0312427999 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
"A re-packaging of ideas expressed better elsewhere"
"Read This Book If You Enjoy Malicious Drivel"
"EYE OPENER FOR THOSE WHOS EYES ARE OPEN ALREADY"
"It All Depends on Whose Ox is Being Gored"
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Editorial Review:
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."
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
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
A re-packaging of ideas expressed better elsewhere 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 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... more info
EYE OPENER FOR THOSE WHOS EYES ARE OPEN ALREADY The elegance of the presentation is matched only by the vicousness of the presented. Rarely does one book change the reality of the reader, or shatter the predispositions of ones opinions. There is much to be said to the importance and timing of such work, but one must wait till the shock wares off to articulate a clear postion. Bravo Naomi Klein. Bravo.
It All Depends on Whose Ox is Being Gored I just finished this book--no small feat, there's a LOT of information to assimilate--and thought it was astonishing, ground breaking, and essential reading. I admit that I'm extremely liberal in my political views, but I'm NOT a fanatic, however. That is, I believe I have an open mind to the extent that I am mostly willing to listen to an opposing view. My experience is that what I fervently believe today will not necessarily be my truth tomorrow. I have killed many a "sacred cow" because I saw, in time,... more info
