Hi Guest     My Account - Upload Pic - Favorites - Wish Lists - Friends - Messages - Login - Create Account

Related Tags
Audio Shock Doctrine
Doctrine
Doctrine Deep Inside
Doctrine Rise
Doctrine Rise Of
Of Disaster Capitalism
One Percent Doctrine
Percent Doctrine
Percent Doctrine Deep
Rise Of Disaster
Rose Quartz Kit Rose
Rose Round Rose P
Shock Doctrine
Shock Doctrine Rise
Shock Doctrine Rise Of

Latest Reviews:

Rating:
This vacuum is the best - it picks up everything!! The design makes it easy to maneuver and clean. I had an issue where it stopped sucking and realized the filter was clogged. As soon as I removed the stuff that accumulated, it was sucking once again.

I wondered if the vacuum would


Rating:
I had a less watt for many years, and it took so much longer .
Got this Nesco 700 Watt, and was so pleased with the speed compared to my old one.
Love the Jerky , and the Nesco season pouches.
A Great Machine.


Rating:
The film may not be everyone's cup of tea. However, it represents cinema-technology at a place we do not see now nor likely to see again. CINERAMA was an event. This film its best effort.
The transfer was creative, clean, and helped place some of the magic of the format in my home theater.

View All

Home / Books
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

Picador The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism


by Picador
Rating: 
Read User ReviewsRead Reviews (289)
Review this ProductWrite Comments/Review
Price Drop AlertPrice Drop Alert
Add To Wish ListAdd to my Wish List
Tag this ProductTag This Product
Compare Prices from 1 Stores:
    Sort by: 


Product Detail Information:
ASIN:0312427999
Sales Rank: 64
Catalog:Book
Binding:Paperback
Product Group:Book
Product Type:ABIS_BOOK
Release Date: 2008-06-24
Manufacturer:Picador
EAN: 9780312427993
Publication Date: 2008-06-24
Number Of Items: 1


Product Description:

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."


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.



Current User Reviews:Back to top
More Review Pages:   1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15   Next >>  

The Dark Side of Unrestricted Capitalism
10/10/2008
The Shock Doctrine is a fascinating expos?? on the dark side of unrestricted capitalism when it is implemented through blackmail, extortion, military force, and the suppression of democracy. Naomi Klein provides numerous examples over the last 50 years of countries who upon falling into financial and economic crises, desperately turn to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund for financial and economic assistance to stabilize and rebuild their economies. These countries soon discover that the World Bank and IMF are staunch promoters of capitalism and free-market economics, and will only provide aid on the condition that unrestricted capitalist policies be instantaneously and shockingly adopted by these countries, using lethal force if necessary, to suppress existing socialist ideologies and organizations, and even to suppress the will of the countries people who may be democratically opposed. This is what Klein refers to as "disaster capitalism", the introduction of unrestricted free-market economics in crisis and disaster situations with the short-term goal of engaging in excessive profiteering, and the long-term goal of assuming absolute control of those economies. And when disaster capitalism is implemented with the shock therapy approach normally associated with modern torture techniques, we have what Klein refers to as the "shock doctrine".

In every example cited by Klein, where countries were literally forced to adopt unrestricted free-market policies (privatization, deregulation, trade liberalization, cessation of government spending, cessation of unionization, suppression of democratic assembly, unrestricted foreign ownership, unwarranted price increases, higher taxation, and intentional mass unemployment) in order to receive financial and economic aid, these countries went into an economic death spiral as their state resources and infrastructure were sold away to foreign owners for cents on the dollar, and the foreign owners were under no obligation to re-invest back into the countries economy. The financial assistance received from the World Bank and IMF was not used to benefit the newly created masses of poor and jobless people who needed it most, but instead was used to benefit the promoters of disaster capitalism.

The only drawback to Klein's book is that she tends to blame disaster capitalism on its economic architects, and not on the governments and corporations who sponsor it. Consequently, Klein's portrayal of Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of Economics as evil incarnate is unwarranted. There is nothing wrong with capitalism and free-market economics when it is implemented under the right conditions. Klein fails to recognize the fact that these economists were acting not just as economic agents of the World Bank and IMF, but also as foreign policy agents of the US government, and globalization agents of American multinational corporations. Klein also fails to acknowledge that these same governments and corporations were engaging in dishonest, unethical, undemocratic, and even criminal behavior when promoting their self-serving political, social, and economic agendas. One fact is clear from Klein's book, disaster capitalism as a means to globalization and American world dominance will not work in countries that embody true democracy.
Was this review helpful? Review is helpful Review is not helpful

Nothing new here, move along
10/7/2008
The only thing that is true, and has been known in fact for a century, is that dramatic events cause change. On this I can agree with Ms. Klein, and only that.

Where this book careens off into left field, is by blaming this all on Milton Friedman and labelling it Friedmanism - all on the basis of a quote, and completely ignoring the history of the Nazis and the Kristallnacht, or the Marxists and the July Days in Russia. Milton Friedman made an observation (why certainly - he's Jewish, the people who suffered disproportionately from the effects of such kinds of propaganda under both regimes), but he surely did not invent the method. Blame the Marxists and the Nazis for perfecting that.

Do yourself a favour, and buy the The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, his thesis is free of partisan politics and delves far further with laser sharp understanding, into how change through improbable events can happen.
Was this review helpful? Review is helpful Review is not helpful

Eye opening
10/7/2008
I would describe myself as reasonably well informed, economically literate, a Wall Street investor and Democrat. I found this book eye-opening, although I believe Klein is pushing a point of view which is frequently incorrect; e.g. privatization is not always bad, and Great Britain under Thatcher did achieve prosperity, while the Chinese middle class is vastly expanding. It is not so clear as Klein seems to imply that if the US had done the right things, the Iraqi invasion would have resulted in a democratic country.

What Klein does is draw lots of things together, and show the extent to which the extreme free market ideology of Milton Friedman and his many disciples dominated US foreign policy in so many countries, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, and also the conduct of government under George W. Bush. Once again ideology, untempered by evidence and practicality, when given free reign, leads to disaster. Many of the practitioners of this ideology were self serving and corrupt, or at least blinded by vanity, but clearly a man like Jeffery Sachs, who is currently doing his best as he sees it for the very poor countries, was genuine in his profession of his goals.

Here are a few of the things which are important and which I hadn't fully known, or known at all: the use of torture to terrorize rather than extract information, and the early CIA interest in it; what happened in Chile to the Allende regime and the Chilean people, with US participation, was not a singular event but was replicated in several other Latin American countries; the pattern of foreign aid which relies on starting from scratch instead of taking advantage of local skills and resources, and the extent to which this occurred in Iraq and also in Sri Lanka and Lebanon; the extent of the waste and corruption in Iraq; how undemocratic Yeltsin was.
Was this review helpful? Review is helpful Review is not helpful

More relevant than most Americans will ever know
10/7/2008
This book is an essential read considering the current economic situation. The vast majority of people including me have no idea of the details of how harmful some economic policies been. This book brings many of those details to light in a way that is both understandable and enthralling. The direct role that the American government and University of Chicago economists have played in both Chile and Russia's disastrous attempts at capitalism are shocking. In fact there are so many things that are shocking, I am somewhat surprised that the book was allowed to be published. (If more Americans read books, it probably would not have been.) Probably the most shocking to me was learning of Dr. Jeffery Sach'sThe End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time role in Russia during its rule by Yeltsin. It seems that he has dramatically altered his views on what is a good economic system for a society to thrive.

Disaster Capitalism has been experienced around the world. How much longer will it be before the US gets our shock? If people read this book, hopefully they will be informed and motivated to insist that we have a sound economic system in place.

Was this review helpful? Review is helpful Review is not helpful

Essential Reading
10/6/2008
Considering the global political climate and the way policy decisions are created these days (witness the latest "crisis" of the economic variety in the US, for one), this book ought to be required reading for pretty much anyone who can or will at some point cast a vote, think about joining the political process, or breathe some amount of oxygen in the next 40 years. Understanding the underlying principles of who wields and forces agendas and power across the continents seems to be something that everyone ought to be interested in. Klein does a great job of tying some pretty wildly disparate ideas together and makes it not only relevant but essential to comprehending the world that we have wrought before us.
Was this review helpful? Review is helpful Review is not helpful
More Review Pages:   1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15   Next >>  

Share your Comments or Review about this Product: Back to top
Title/Summary:
Your Comments or Review about this product:
Your Rating?



By submitting this form you acknowledge that you, not Plaza101, is responsible for the contents of your submission. All user submitted content becomes the sole property of Plaza101.com. Plaza101.com reserves the right to use, edit or delete user submitted content at its discretion.



Similar Products:

  1. The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot
  2. The Conscience of a Liberal
  3. The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder
  4. The Secret History of the American Empire: The Truth About Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and How to Change the World


Featured Products

 


Browse all Merchants


   

Note: Displayed Prices are subject to change without notice.
Please check the merchant website for final price before making a purchase.

 
   

Read Reviews & Compare Price for Picador The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Plaza101 helps you save money every time you shop online for Picador The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Try this free shopping search service to compare products and stores to find the best online prices.

 
 
Price Comparison - Press Release - Contact - Disclaimer - Privacy - Site Map - Valuable Links - Plaza101 Blog - 2
© 2002-2008 Plaza101.com