The Shock Doctrine

The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

By: Naomi Klein

Narrated by: Jennifer Wiltsie

Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

The bestselling author of No Logo shows how the global "free market" has exploited crises and shock for three decades, from Chile to Iraq

In her groundbreaking reporting, 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.

©2007 Naomi Klein (P)2007 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers LLC

Nailed the past and predicted the future

Naomi Klein has a way of clarifying what the problems are, validating the anger we all feel, but staying grounded. It’s very easy for people to see all of these machinations by elites and let their anger drive them off the road to unbridled conspiracy land. But Klein somehow validates and keeps our feet on the ground. Highly recommend.

Narrator did an excellent job. Consistent, clear, but still engaging.

WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING!!!

Well, wonderful. Everybody is praising Naomi for her great work. After you're all done congratulating her, don't forget to dig in and get to work. Make sure everybody you know listens to this book. If only half of what she says is correct, then we are the evil empire. The evils done to the citizens of Iraq dwarf anything Hollywood can ever come up with. I am still conservative. But we need to get the spending power out of the hands of the Federal Government. We need to replace congress with men of courage and integrity who refuse funding from special interests.
Please don't say depressing, this book is infuriating and motivating. We can't afford to be depressed.

Interesting book that seems mostly plausible

This is an interesting book. Overall it has the basic premise that people in our government and corporations have colluded to "Never let a tragedy go to waste". It tells the story of some of these ideological leaders in our economy that have extreme views that will stop at nothing to make them a self fulfilling prophecy. This includes torture, insider deals that are corrupt, and anti-humanitarian actions.

The Narration fits the book. Somewhat gloomy and dour.

It's worth a listen to whomever is interested in disaster economics.

Great!

Fantastic book. Really exposes the bad actors and the sadistic abuses and failures of neo-liberalism.

A torch bearer

Naomi Klein makes a compelling argument on disaster capitalism. This is a great read.
5/5

amazing in the detail it gives toward our economy

the what it describes is our present world where disasters are opportunities to make money and governments

An Essential Work of Recent History!

Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine is a fantastic work of contemporary history, covering the Milton Friedman school of burglar capitalism. Covering topics such as Pinochet's Junta in Chile, Botis Yeltsin's transition of the Soviet Union into the modern Russian Federation, The Iraq War and America's attempts to convert the quasi-socialist society Saddham Hussein has constructed into a neo-imperial venture owned whole or in part by outside, multinational corporations, Hurricane Katrina and the attempts by The Bush Administration to sell off the communities which were traditionally lived in by African Americans to giant corporations, and finally ending with Israel and its relationship to what Klein refers to as "Disaster Capitalism."

Klein succinctly paints the scenarios which Milton Friedman created via his disciples, causing untold damage to the world while attempting to create their utopian society where government only exists to enforce contracts and protect the nation from outsiders. An excellent companion to A Brief History of Neo-Liberalism by David Harvey.

Hard hitting.

This book was more than a pleasant surprise, I couldn't stop listening. This is essentially a well researched, hard hitting break down of the devastating impact that 'free market economics,' or selling out the b rebuilding of destroyed communities and nations has had on those places and the rest of the world. Everything is tied together in an objective manner backed by data and facts provided by established and well known organizations such as the UN, World Health Organization, Human Rights Watch and many others. Naomi hit this one out of the park, and I only regret not picking this up ten years ago. I hope that she will think about doing a follow up to many of the situations she researched and newer crises the world has seen since 2007. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for anyone and everyone.

sobering and informative

my eyes have been opened to the immense disservice this ideology and it's purveyors are wreaking on humanity.

Must Read

Very informative. Naomi does a phenomenal job explaining Neoliberalism and how it has become the United States’ # 1 export enslaving and destroying nations around the world. Overall great read although she does get a couple of things wrong in the book.