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A review by tjr
No Logo by Naomi Klein
3.0
Well I finally got around to reading Naomi Klein’s No Logo, and it is probably apt to say that I read it about a decade too late. It is a dated read, there’s no two ways about it. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it was a bad book, or that No Logo is terribly written (it actually reads really well). It's just that, more than anything, the world has moved on and become a completely different place now, changed so much so that a lot of what is written in the pages of No Logo are almost irrelevant.
First off, No Logo was written and published at a time of plently. The tech bubble of the late 90s had not yet burst, September 11th hadn't occurred, and a lot of Americans still had jobs. Essentially No Logo was speaking to the affluent and well-to-do middle class to do something about sweatshops and what not because it was the “right thing to do.” The book covers the plight of third-world workers, and human rights abuses (all very important); however, No Logo doesn't really grasp the end-result, North American cost of moving all these manufacturing jobs off shore — that eventually there will be nothing left and nowhere for Americans to work.
One part of the book that was very informative was how all the major corporations aren't really “into” making products any more, but are rather all about “brand.” Essentially this big corporations are hollowed-out shells of their former selves, empty and devoid of anything other than superfluous glitter. The way Klein describes this in matter-of-fact language was eye opening.
At the end of the day, No Logo is a good read—an important read—that everyone should read at least once. Read it to see how much worse reality could become, compared to the predictions that Klein mentions in No Logo. All throughout reading it, I kept wanting to travel back in time and tell the author how it was really going to all unfold.
First off, No Logo was written and published at a time of plently. The tech bubble of the late 90s had not yet burst, September 11th hadn't occurred, and a lot of Americans still had jobs. Essentially No Logo was speaking to the affluent and well-to-do middle class to do something about sweatshops and what not because it was the “right thing to do.” The book covers the plight of third-world workers, and human rights abuses (all very important); however, No Logo doesn't really grasp the end-result, North American cost of moving all these manufacturing jobs off shore — that eventually there will be nothing left and nowhere for Americans to work.
One part of the book that was very informative was how all the major corporations aren't really “into” making products any more, but are rather all about “brand.” Essentially this big corporations are hollowed-out shells of their former selves, empty and devoid of anything other than superfluous glitter. The way Klein describes this in matter-of-fact language was eye opening.
At the end of the day, No Logo is a good read—an important read—that everyone should read at least once. Read it to see how much worse reality could become, compared to the predictions that Klein mentions in No Logo. All throughout reading it, I kept wanting to travel back in time and tell the author how it was really going to all unfold.