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

everyone should read this book

this book will give you a fresh look at the United States and all its glory

Most important book on why Bush invaded Iraq

What did you love best about The Shock Doctrine?

Very dry in the beginning, but the information about the Chicago School of Economics is needed to understand the rest of ring wing actions. You will understand why Cheney talked Bush into invading Iraq and the actions immediately after is why we are still there.

Collection

A city named Sandys Spring caught my attention..usa is could be to be controlled by corporatism

THE RAW TRUTH ABOUT OUR NATION AND PLANET

Never have I understood the chaos and confusion of the world im in until i read this.

"The Lucky Get Kevlar, The Rest Get Prayer Beads"

Klein makes the metaphor of shock treatment (psychological experiments, which are torture by the definition of the word), and compares it to the economic dislocations and disasters to the success of Friedman's free market philosophy. Already we knew that pain, applied correctly, will disorient people. Disoriented people don’t fight back, nor can they even quite understand what’s happening around them until they regain their footing. At least 4/5ths of the book are devoted to the history of "shocking" local and national movements into disorientation. Some of the shocks were manufactured (violent coups, international currency manipulation), some were hijacked revolutions (South Africa, Russia, Poland), and some were natural disasters (the Tsunami a few years back, New Orleans), but with always the same result: foreign companies buy up everything in sight, plunging already impoverished and disoriented people into further pain and poverty. I can't decide whether I feel that her paranoia got out of control, or whether it is indeed a fair representation of US foreign policy over the last 30-40 years. It rings true, but I would need to do more research before forming a more concrete opinion.

Warning: not for those easily triggered

Overall I think Naomi Klein does a thorough job of gathering facts, and outlining them in a way that completely tears apart the Bush administration's opportunistic, pillaging, war- time regime. The reason I see it as an audio book, (that can easily trigger those of us who are tired of government acting as robber barons who seem to only be beholden to corporations), is that the entire book is basically an extensive exposé on that embarrassment of an administration. The reading quality is excellent and the book overall is pretty quick. I'm sad to admit, but I wouldn't listen to it again only because I don't feel like being frustrated by our government in audio book form.

shocking.

The narrator was very clear. The Shock Doctrine was shocking (to me anyway). A must read to understand how things got to be how they are today.

Historical analysis of the use of shock and privatization

Provides a lot of facts, food for thought on the political motivations behind the the state of perpetual war and the privatization of war and disaster relief

truly excellent

this book is excellent, the facts contained herein may shock some listeners for readers as nearing the level of conspiracy theories I'm however there's not a single untrue historical fact recorded herein. the only conclusion one can draw from understanding many of these realities is that the vast majority of people in the world AR simply a tool, or even an obstacle, to the enrichment of elites

Putting profit above people leads to disaster

Extremely interesting and well sourced read. Convincingly argues against Friedman’s Free Market economic principles and illustrates the real world impacts of the systems attempted implementation. The school of thought has repeatedly failed the public in the societies where it has been put into action yet it has successes in funneling money out of the public’s hands and into private corporations and the law makers who decided to implement the strategy. To combat the corporatization we need to support our small locally owned businesses as often as we can to ensure our money stays in our communities and to fight for strict financial and corporate regulations.