The Shock Doctrine: Understanding the Rise of Disaster Capitalism

Miklos Roth: What a brilliant book about the imperialist doctrine of the US! The whole world would be a match better an honest, peaceful place without the Americans! Maybe some catastrophic natural disasters in America would help humanity!

Australia on Jul 29, 2022

Lucca Canizela De Camargo: Very informative book!

Brazil on May 22, 2022

Brenda: Llego en tiempo y forma y el libro está muy bueno

Mexico on Oct 15, 2020

zolt: A real eye opener or confirmation of what I thought the US of A was always about. Money. Dollars. Nothing else. Profit at all cost. The bigger the profits on any venture the better. They, the US government seems to have exhausted all ventures outside of their own border so now it is time to rape their own citizens. Not that they have not been doing it all along. But now, it is full tilt ahead. God help the American people. They certainly need it. Just a little heads up. Does anyone know why there is racism, poverty and the illusion that there is such a thing as the American dream? Because the super rich want it that way. It makes them money.

Canada on Aug 25, 2020

Apemantus: simple advice: read it! and then start thinking about your life and the entire fabric of supposed 'modern civilisation' and your part in it. Shows the progression of neoliberalist free market capitalism and its deathtoll from the Cold War until today (Syria, Guantanàmo Bay, etc etc). Thinking about this also explains for example why there are Spanish soldiers in Syria now - are they REALLY there to 'protect you' from the 'evil threat of terrorism'???? Don't make me laugh: they're there to protect foreign investment interests - vultures picking the meat off the carcass of the country. By the way, Milton Friedman is one of the most evil men ever to have polluted the planet with his presence. If you disagree wtih this statement, or have no idea even who this repulsive piece of bacteria was, read chapters 2 -8 in this impeccably well-researched and documented book which outline his influence both theoretical and direct in South America in the 70s.(personal advisor to Pinochet, whose torture and mass murder techniques Fieldman condoned as 'necessary' to import his own twisted and sadistic economic system - privatising everything and selling off state assets for a song to foriegn...

Spain on Oct 06, 2017

Dienne: I've read dozens (hundreds?) of books about what went wrong during the Bush administration (as well as books about what's continued to go wrong under Obama too). Some books are about specific things such as the Iraq war or GITMO. Others look at more overarching themes such as executive power or disregard for the rule of law. Most of such books have made some important points and contributed some valuable analysis, but I've usually been left feeling like the blind men arguing over what they've discovered. "It's a rope," says one. "No, it's a wall," says another. "You're both wrong, claims the third, "it's a tree trunk."

Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine" is the first book that correctly identifies the elephant. Now, perhaps Ms. Klein doesn't have the elephant quite right - maybe her elephant's ears are a tad too large, or perhaps its tail is a bit too short, but overall, she has described the elephant remarkably well.

Following an introduction, Klein opens with the story of Dr. Ewen Cameron, a psychiatrist who believed that in order to "heal" his patients, he first needed to destroy their dysfunctional personality structure and "regress" them back to infancy in order...

United States on Nov 01, 2011

David M. Nataf: Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism" is a journalistic tour de force. Over nearly 600 pages of text, she traces the rise and implementation of neo-liberal economic ideology in many times and places: 1960s Indonesia under Suharto's coup and his allies in the Berkeley Mafia, in the Southern Cone in the 1970s and in particular in Pinochet's Chile, in Brazil, in Thatcher's UK, 1980s Bolivia, in China following Tiannamen, in Germany, Poland and Russia following the collapse of communism, in South Africa following the fall of Apartheid, in the Asian financial crisis, in post-9/11 USA with the homeland security bubble, in post-9/11 Israel with the same homeland security bubble, in the Iraq war, in New Orleans following Katrina, and in places like Sri Lanka that were victims of the 2005 Tsunami. The cases that get the most attention are Pinochet's Chile, Russia under Yeltsin and Iraq under the USA. As the book was put out in 2007, it does not include the current American financial crisis, it does say later on that the USA is headed toward economic collapse, something Klein might wish she had elaborated on.

The narrative, which is primarily descriptive...

United States on Jun 21, 2010