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The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism | 
 enlarge | Author: Naomi Klein
Publisher: Penguin
Category: Book
List Price: £9.99
Buy New: £4.20
You Save: £5.79 (58%)
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Rating:  39 reviews
Sales Rank: 263
Media: Paperback
Pages: 576
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 1.1
ISBN: 0141024534
EAN: 9780141024530
ASIN: 0141024534
Publication Date: May 1, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 34 more reviews...
 yes but... November 13, 2008
Dean Swift (Hertfordshire)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Readable, passionate, but... if true, the latest financial crash would have seen another swift extension of market power. But does govt control or ownership of the banks, talk of aggressive new regulation or the 'end of capitalism' sound like capitalism making hay? Are we really seeing a retreat from govt or state activity in the face of recession?
On the contrary, this latest shock is widely described as a disaster for capitalism. The doctrine fails its first test. The former chairman of the Federal reserve - Alan Greenspan - talks about this shock as though it has fundamentally undermined the theoretical constructs of capitalism by showing the weakness of self interest. When the priests are becoming apostates, how can the shock be said to further their former creed? The conclusion has to be that this book is an aggressively selective reading of the evidence. As such, it might apply historically to some cases and is an interesting description of the manner in which some people find profit in any event, but does not come close to holding up as a doctrine. Overall, it strains far too hard and becomes less convincing with every doctrinaire assertion of its own. Having read the blurb about a methodical approach to data, I then read the the author's suggestion of an alignment of capitalism and torture with disbelief. This is not evidence, it is polemic, and occasionally whacky polemic at that. Spirited, but flawed.
 Totally mindblowing October 30, 2008
BassBoy2k (London, England)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is my first ever review on Amazon. No book has ever moved me to want to take action before like The Shock Dcotrine. Ok, so writing an Amazon review isn't going to change the world but getting as many people as possible to read this book is a step in the right direction.
A friend who recommended the book to me said it was powerful, but I wasn't prepared for just how powerful. Page after page I felt real physical rage and disbelief at how these horrific and world changing events have been happening for decades (and continue to happen) and yet have remained so under the radar of most of us.
Describing the contents of the book has been done very eloquently in other reviews, so I won't repeat that here. But I will just say PLEASE, whatever your political colour, however sceptical you are, PLEASE read this book, it will change how you view the world.
Yuck October 3, 2008
D&D
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Even though it was valuable for me to learn what is really going on, I read this book with a mixture of revulsion and horror. I was certainly shocked to learn about the tripartite economic recipe - privatisation, deregulation, and cutbacks in social welfare spending - repeatedly used around the world by a so-called democracy via highly non-democratic means.
In the early years, the primary shock vehicle was dictatorial military force and accompanying fear of - and actual mass use of - arrest, torture, disappearance, or death. Over time, new organisations such as the IMF and the World Bank were employed instead, deliberately creating impossible debt burdens to force governments to accept privatisation, removal of trade barriers and tariffs, and widespread layoffs. In more recent years, these policies have been used on peoples already shocked by terrroism or natural disasters like hurricanes and tsunamis.
And more and more information along the lines revealed by this book continues to show up - only recently, for example, "New Scientist" (23 July 2008) carried an article stating that, for each year of a country's involvement with the IMF, the TB death rate increased by four per cent on average. This was not because countries with worsening TB attract more IMF attention since the TB rates had been falling, or at least steady, before receiving IMF "help".
Finally, for a more personal view of the same story, read "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man".
 Complex, Compelling, Horrifying, an Important Book September 29, 2008
THE Music Enthusiast
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"The Shock Doctrine" is a thoroughly good read in which Naomi Klein sets out to illustrate the spread of the economic doctrine of the late economist Milton Friedman and of the Chicago School of Economics; to illustrate the use of force (backed by U.S government in a number of cases) by right-wing governments and exploitation of natural disaster and conflict to push through unpopular economic reforms (based on Friedman's doctrine), and how such governments are putting big business first to line their own pockets and those of the corporate sector, leaving the public sector to deteriorate and their nation to grow poorer and poorer.
The book opens with an introduction of Milton Friedman's view of disaster as an opportunity for the practice of free-market economics; how he longed for the chance to test out his theories and how he finally got the chance. Klein discusses research into the effects of psychological shock and then moves onto how this research was then used and abused by the CIA for interrogation purposes. We are then cited a number of case studies in which right-wing governments have used repressive measures to pursue with their economic policies, and the concept of 'planned misery' is developed.
It is when Klein turns onto the subject of shock therapy in the U.S., of the homeland security industry and U.S. management of Iraq vis-a-vis shock therapy becomes slightly inconsistent, something she appears to seek a remedy for, in the case of the latter, with the concept of "pre-emptive shock". This inconsistency itself, however, isn't particularly important because the message is clear enough: with all the back-scratching and dirty dealing going on under Bush, the corporate world has never had it so good.
The penultimate chapter looks at how conflict has benefited the Israeli economy and stock markets, and the final chapter is Klein's hope-inspiring conclusion is that capitalism is finally coming to its end as left-wing governments turn their backs on the U.S and on free-market economics ideas and practices, etc.
"The Shock Doctrine" is a complex book, but Klein's style of writing is ever-refreshing and there's not a dull word in the text, one of the great things about her work. She brilliantly portrays why right-wing big government and big business can be so dangerous. It's a relief to know both have a thorn in its side like Naomi Klein. This is an important book, one not to be missed. I'd definitely recommend it.
Scandal: Sometimes people profit when bad things happen. Film at eleven! September 21, 2008
Dr. P. J. A. Wicks (London, England)
3 out of 8 found this review helpful
First, disclosure: I enjoyed No Logo a great deal, it informed a lot of the way I think about corporations and changed the way I bought clothes. I read the Guardian when I get a chance, and am addicted to the Daily Show. So please don't think that my review is based on having a radically different philosophy to Ms Klein.
I didn't like this book. The main thrust of the book is that there are theorists who believe that you can only change things when a big shock to the system happens; an earthquake, 9/11, Katrina, etc. In the aftermath the populace are too shocked and confused to notice free marketers running in to privatize public assets like security or schools. Now in individual cases, I agree this is something to keep an eye on, particularly with companys like Blackwater. But where the author loses me is in tying this together with a history of torture methods of the CIA around electroshock. I didn't really see the relevance of the comparison and it's a thread that weaves its way through the book. There's also a hint of the paranoia seen in conspiracy theorists, throughout, and here is my fundamental problem with that: most people are not evil. They go about their business, try to be good people, and that's that. If a corporation sees an opportunity to make money it's hardly surprising they will do, it doesn't always need to be interepreted as part of an agenda. Sometimes it's just business.
Personally I found the entire topic much less relevant to me than No Logo; what am I supposed to do about the issues explored here other than gripe about them to other lefties to show off how well read I am? At 550 pages this could also have done with being a lot more concise. Overall I'm disappointed that I didn't like this more.
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