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The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

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Released: 2008-06-24

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Product Description

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:
Is the end of Shock & Awe coming?

This is a well souced book about American style capitalism and how destructive to the world it has been, a horrific failure of tremendous scope--that is if the intention was to lift the people of the world up to a better quality of life. Klein lays the blame on Milton Friedman, a U. of Chicago economist. The author deliniates the strategy and the tactics through real world example after real world example. The question becomes: How was this possible? How can a few men, with very bad ideas, dominate the world to the accumulation of their personal wealth, at the expense of the great majority of people, under the guise of democracy? Answer: Through fear, lies, torture, state and intimate terrorism and; dare I say, greed, antisocial, and narcissistic behaviors. This happened not once--but time and time again, right on up through the disaster that is Iraq and the rebuilding of New Orleans. What is truly troubling is that this happened with the world watching and was, in fact, the policy of America. There are believers. And, if you are one of the beneficiaries of this policy then you probably don't care. Do you care now?

A thoroughly discredited heap of distortions
Klein caters to her socialist audience with this work of astonishingly blatant distortions and falsehoods, knowing that it will sell to the true believers and that she'll get away with it. But don't look here for real scholarship. Her straw-man case against Friedman and free-markets it so blatantly distorted and fabricated that any gems of truth are lost in the mire.

Read the other one-star reviews for some details, and for a more thorough analysis read Johan Norberg's review in the October 2008 issue of Reason magazine, which shows how thoroughly Klein actually gets Friedman's position, and many facts about economics, exactly backward across the board. To accomplish that requires more than error, it indicates a deliberate attempt to deceive.

Naomi Klein-Shock Doctrine
In regard to my purchase of "Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein, the seller was very prompt with the shipping and the condition of the book was excellent as advertised. I had no problems with payment via the Amazon website:is very easy to navigate. I am a return shopper at Amazon and do not see that changing in the near future. The selection is great. I have not begun the book yet, but I am acquainted with it through talk radio review and a friend's review of it. I am also familiar with Naomi's work and have such respect for her moral and ethical stands. I am looking forward to getting the details of this book for myself.

Carl

Get this book now!
Klein uncovers Freidmanite economic policy and shows it as it is: a cold, callous model in which the rich get richer and the hell with everyone else. By the time we have followed the trail of destruction that the Chicago School has left in its wake, we come to expect the horrifying, yet natural progression of its policy, which is that of disaster capitalism. This book is an amazing eye opener.

A real eye opener
If you thought you knew about America, and it's foreign policy for the past 50 years, wait 'til you read this book. The idea that these things are being done, in our name, in places all over the world, is a crime. Pray, that under a new president the methods and tactics used by our country will cease, immediately. "The Shock Doctrine" will shock you. I promise.