false 1237300 19 In her groundbreaking reporting over the past few years, Naomi Klein introduced the term “disaster capitalism.” Whether covering Baghdad after the U.S. occupation, Sri Lanka in the wake of the tsunami, or 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. Klein argues that by capitalizing on crises, created by nature or war, 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. 2826418 book 18 9 2007 The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism total:2589|5:1345|4:880|3:278|2:64|1:22| 2589 11229 6060 759 5 26 false false Sun May 25 01:09:50 -0700 2008 Sun Feb 15 13:43:22 -0800 2009
Klein compares some psycho...more...]]> 3 12 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Oct 08 16:52:31 -0700 2007 Wed Nov 07 14:14:28 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 11 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Mar 01 20:07:20 -0800 2008 Sat Mar 01 20:08:12 -0800 2008
This is a chilling, writhing outrage of a book. A hideous, squealing beast of a book that cannot and should not be ignored.

Klein has dropped the curtain on an ugly, malevolent Wizard. When these kind of curtains drop, we never...more...]]> 5 8 false false Thu Mar 13 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Mar 18 17:49:32 -0700 2008 Thu Mar 20 11:11:44 -0700 2008
Much of the information meticulously detailed in the book was already available in Harper’s Magazine and ...more...]]> 3 7 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sun Mar 30 06:19:32 -0700 2008 Sun Mar 01 13:00:23 -0800 2009 I recently finished reading your latest book, The Shock Doctrine. Your detailed account of the connections between neoliberal economic policy and the use of violent repression, the decline of welfare states, and the rise of corporatized war and disaster capitalism is compell...more...]]> 5 8 false false Fri Feb 27 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Oct 14 07:35:12 -0700 2008 Sat Feb 28 18:13:55 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 5 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 03 17:25:44 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 10 11:56:14 -0800 2008 ...more...]]> 2 6 false false Sun Jun 15 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 15 09:40:40 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 15 20:17:21 -0700 2008
Much of her main “shock doctrine” argument seems to be just sort of a tightly-woven set of linguistic parallels that are meant to suggest c...more...]]> 5 4 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Mon Nov 26 04:11:56 -0800 2007 Sat Dec 01 23:40:33 -0800 2007
The whole text was rich in the exposing of history and deep analysis. I strongly encourage anyone reading it to stick through to the end. The bul...more...]]> 5 3 false false Sun Jun 29 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Jan 27 14:02:18 -0800 2008 Sun Jun 29 08:41:38 -0700 2008 Open Veins of Latin America, which Klein cited frequently, are the two best books I've read in years.

What's amazing is that none of the historical or current events she covered were really new to me--I read the papers, I'm up on my Latin American history, ...more...]]> 3 3 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Oct 12 10:40:06 -0700 2007 Fri Oct 12 10:56:05 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 3 false false Mon Dec 03 11:35:53 -0800 2007 Mon Dec 03 11:50:39 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 5 false false Fri Sep 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 02 12:44:14 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 28 08:11:36 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 2 false false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 11 07:55:55 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 11 08:09:59 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 2 false false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun May 04 18:22:05 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 31 21:23:46 -0700 2008
Although, I'll be honest, it didn't quite grab me up front - I found that Klein began the book with a number of oversimplifications in describing both the i...more...]]> 5 2 false false Fri Feb 08 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 05 22:13:25 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 08 07:58:57 -0800 2008 more...]]> 2 2 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 01 19:57:45 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 01 19:58:48 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 2 false false Sun Dec 16 16:59:21 -0800 2007 Sun Dec 16 18:05:21 -0800 2007
This book is a valuable tool for understanding the politics and history of the last 50 years.

One aspect of the book I think especia...more...]]> 4 2 false false Wed Nov 21 09:04:42 -0800 2007 Wed Nov 21 09:11:15 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 2 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Oct 08 16:58:06 -0700 2007 Sun Nov 25 16:56:45 -0800 2007 more...]]>