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Loading... The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (original 2007; edition 2008)by Naomi Klein
Work InformationThe Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein (2007)
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The Shock Doctrine shows in chilling detail how the free market has been backed up with violence over the last 30 years. I suspect it has stirred up a debate already. AwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
References to this work on external resources. Wikipedia in English (20)Journalist Klein introduced the term "disaster capitalism." Whether covering Baghdad after the U.S. occupation, Sri Lanka after the tsunami, or New Orleans post-Katrina, she witnessed remarkably similar events: people still reeling were hit again, this time with economic "shock treatment," losing their land and homes to corporate makeovers. This book retells the story of Milton Friedman's free-market economic revolution. In contrast to the 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. At its core 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, the violent culmination of a radical economic project that has been incubating for fifty years.--From publisher description. No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)330.122Social sciences Economics Economics Theory Systems CapitalismLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. Penguin AustraliaAn edition of this book was published by Penguin Australia. |
Of course the main function of this book is to shine a light on the machinations of the neoliberal economic order that has effectively run the world economy for the last 35 years, and it does that very well. Americans have a tendency to view geopolitics on a purely ideological level. This was surely a big part of why conservatives and liberals alike were duped into supporting the Iraq war- we feel like it is our duty as the most “advanced” country in the world to save poor brown people from themselves. Who couldn’t benefit from a free press, religious tolerance, equality for women? And yet this was never what the war in Iraq was about. Klein shows that it is economics first and foremost that drives conflict and social upheaval, not vague concepts about freedom. The great switcheroo of American politics is that we traded the fight for economic rights with the fight over cultural rights, and the reason why is clear: those at the top of society know that discussion of economic rights is much more dangerous to them than vague arguments about kneeling for the National anthem or whatever. ( )