Naomi Klein

In this groundbreaking book, the bestselling author of No Logo exposes the gripping story of how America's 'free market' policies have come to dominate the world - through the exploitation of disaster-shocked people and countries. As Klein shows how the deliberate use of the shock doctrine produced world changing events from Pinochet's coup in Chile in 1973 to the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, she tells a story radically different from the one usually heard. Once again Naomi Klein has written a book that will reframe the debate.

The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

The Shock Doctrine

An introduction to the concept of "disaster capitalism" offers an expose of how the global "free market" has exploited crises, violence, and shock over the past three decades to promote radical privatization that benefits large corporations and powerfuli

lamia 

Cody Degen

Sometimes felt like the central metaphor was getting a little strained but overall really good and instructive

i am exhausted but this is an important book

heleen de boever

Particularly poignant and relevant in light of the recent Greek crisis. "[...] the imposition of a cutthroat, combative economic model that made life harder for a majority of people at the very moment when what they needed most was reconciliation and an easing of tensions" (404).

Nelson Zagalo

Minha análise: http://virtual-illusion.blogspot.pt/2...

Vicki Hesketh

Brilliantly researched and hugely alarming. An essential read for anybody trying to understand the foundations of laissez-faire capitalism, the widening wealth division, or just how large multinational corporations benefit from, war, civil unrest, and natural disaster. As relevant today as it was thirteen years ago.

Hazel Evans

One of those books I feel absolutely compelled to review (despite the overwhelming sum below already).

I'm no politics or economy nut, don't read much non-fiction at all, and tend to float around a little being fairly unaware of what is going on in the wider world, but I was glued to this book from start to finish. A friend recommended it to me, and it was clear when he described it that this was more than just your average recommendation. And since I began the book, I have in turn, raved and raved and raved about it to every single friend that gives me a second's window opportunity to 'go off on one', and I'm not usually one to gush and soliloquise.

I cannot help but feel that this is a book that everyone should read, not so we are humbled or motivated into founding our own charities (though I admit, these are reactions the book may inspire) but primarily as a reminder, of the power and greed in the world that is so frequently presented to us as something else.

As a culture, we are so used to having information thrown at us, that we take unquestionably for truth, especially if said information is deemed an trustworthy and truthful source, such as a university professor, a liable political figure or an independent paper. (Consider the horse meat scandal in the UK; before that, we devoutly trusted the official looking ingredients labels on food packaging.) This book reminds us of the fact that anyone can be bought off, or have their own incentivised agenda they are trying to push through, no matter what guise their information comes in.

In the UK, we are perhaps not so aware of the raging corporate globalisation, as those in countries who have really been exploited. We are lucky in that, but for the small every day problems we have no real explanation for, such as, why are buses in my city so expensive and awful? Well, thanks to the privatised transport system and rule that companies cannot cooperate, First Great Western have done an excellent job of monopolising my area, rocketing their prices up so that only OAPs with free bus passes can get them, then First claim back all the money from the state, who provide the transport for the OAPs, leaving the rest of us to walk, drive or pay a stupid amount of money to a shitty company. I'm hardly claiming great suffering here, especially having just finished this book, but it is interesting to consider the world from such an angle as Klein writes about in The Shock Doctrine. I'd known this already (about the buses) but never before had I been able to understand the cause for the government de-privatising the transport system.

Prescribe every economics student in the world with this book. This suggestion is perhaps hypocritical. By forcing everyone in the world to read this book I would become somewhat of a doctrine enforcer myself. However, I think, in light of the monopoly the small percentage of powerful people in the world have on our information sources, the suggestion is not such an inappropriate one. 

I don't believe it is a book intended to entirely change people's thoughts on markets and politics, but one that simply offers a different perspective, a perspective it is good to be aware of, especially if you're a student studying a related subject, and all you're hearing is Chicago boy ideology, before you go out into the real world ready to do some damage (or good), think about what this book is saying and don't become indoctrinated (by the Chicago boys OR this book).

It's hard to really relay how brilliant this book is. I feel the more I write about it, the more I make it seem awful. But if you take anything from this review, take my word, that this book is incredibly well researched, well written, interesting, gripping, thought-provoking and definitely not a heavy technical non-fiction read meant only for politics nerds.

Gonia Cholewa

Kimberley 🦉

La doctrina del shock es la historia no oficial del libre mercado. Desde Chile hasta Rusia, desde Sudáfrica hasta Canadá la implantación del libre mercado responde a un programa de ingeniería social y económica que Naomi Klein identifica como «capitalismo del desastre». Tras una investigación de cuatro años, Klein explora el mito según el cual el mercado libre y global triunfó democráticamente, y que el capitalismo sin restricciones va de la mano de la democracia. Por el contrario, Klein sostiene que ese capitalismo utiliza constantemente la violencia, el choque, y pone al descubierto los hilos que mueven las marionetas tras los acontecimientos más críticos de las últimas cuatro décadas. Klein demuestra que el capitalismo emplea constantemente la violencia, el terrorismo contra el individuo y la sociedad. Lejos de ser el camino hacia la libertad, se aprovecha de las crisis para introducir impopulares medidas de choque económico, a menudo acompañadas de otras forma de shock no tan metafóricas: el golpe de la prra de los policías, las torturas con electroshocks o la picana en las celdas de las cárceles. En este relato apasionante, narrado con pulso firme, Klein repasa la historia mundial reciente (de la dictadura de Pinochet a la reconstrucción de Beirut; del Katrina al tsunami; del 11-S al 11-M, para dar la palabra a un único protagonista: las diezmadas poblaciones civiles sometidas a la voracidad despiadada de los nuevos dueños del mundo, el conglomerado industrial, comercial y gubernamental para quien los desastres, las guerras y la inseguridad del ciudadano son el siniestro combustible de la economía del shock.

The Shock Doctrine The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

Reviews