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A review by crybabybea
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein
challenging
informative
medium-paced
4.5
Completely perspective shifting, this book will change the way you view pretty much every world event, both at home and abroad. I had to keep double-checking that this book was actually from 2007. Reading it post-COVID, post Trump re-election is certainly an experience.
I liked Naomi Klein's use of metaphor, though it might not work for others. Using the act of shock therapy, historically used to torture and mentally break patients and political adversaries alike, Klein explains how corporations and politicians use shock and awe to take control of crises and disasters for their own profit. She does well to keep the thread of metaphor throughout the book without becoming overbearing or repetitive.
Klein uses multiple real-life examples to prove her theory; the USA's involvement in political coups, 9/11 and the war on terror, Katrina, Palestine, pandemics, etc. I appreciated that she kept the approach broad, without getting too lost in details. Her writing is to-the-point and accessible.
The Shock Doctrine fills in so many gaps, and answers questions that one might have when reading other books. It answers a lot of "whys" (hint: the answer is always greed). Because of this, I found it to fit in well with other reads, specifically Dark Money, Blowout, The Hundred Years' War on Palestine, The New Jim Crow, and many more. Definitely a foundational text that further proves that oppressive systems cannot be undone without undoing the system of capitalism from the bottom-up.
I liked Naomi Klein's use of metaphor, though it might not work for others. Using the act of shock therapy, historically used to torture and mentally break patients and political adversaries alike, Klein explains how corporations and politicians use shock and awe to take control of crises and disasters for their own profit. She does well to keep the thread of metaphor throughout the book without becoming overbearing or repetitive.
Klein uses multiple real-life examples to prove her theory; the USA's involvement in political coups, 9/11 and the war on terror, Katrina, Palestine, pandemics, etc. I appreciated that she kept the approach broad, without getting too lost in details. Her writing is to-the-point and accessible.
The Shock Doctrine fills in so many gaps, and answers questions that one might have when reading other books. It answers a lot of "whys" (hint: the answer is always greed). Because of this, I found it to fit in well with other reads, specifically Dark Money, Blowout, The Hundred Years' War on Palestine, The New Jim Crow, and many more. Definitely a foundational text that further proves that oppressive systems cannot be undone without undoing the system of capitalism from the bottom-up.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Genocide, Mental illness, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Islamophobia, Colonisation, War, Pandemic/Epidemic