The Shock Doctrine
2007
- financial crises
- capitalism
- free enterprise
- corporate power
- disasters
- economic history
- international economic relations
- violence
- world politics
- foreign relations
The story
**The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism** is a 2007 book by the Canadian author and social activist Naomi Klein. In the book, Klein argues that neoliberal free market policies (as advocated by the economist Milton Friedman) have risen to prominence in some developed countries because of a deliberate strategy of "shock therapy". This centers on the exploitation of national crises (disasters or upheavals) to establish controversial and questionable policies, while citizens are too distracted (emotionally and physically) to engage and develop an adequate response, and resist effectively. The book advances the idea that some man-made events, such as the Iraq War, were undertaken with the intention of pushing through such unpopular policies in their wake. Some reviewers criticized the book for making what they viewed as simplifications of political phenomena, while others lauded it as a compelling and important work. The book served as the main source of a 2009 documentary feature film with the same title directed by Michael Winterbottom. (Source: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shock_Doctrine))
What it’s like
Brisk, reportorial prose with a journalist's momentum: short declarative sentences, dense sourcing, and a steady build of evidence that feels more like a case being made than a story being told. Its world is airports, conference halls, flooded streets, and interrogation rooms, rendered in plain, unshowy detail rather than lyrical description. The vibe is urgent and indignant, with a restless, slightly paranoid undertow, the kind of read that suits a weekday commute, a long train journey, or an evening when you want to feel alert and a little angry. The pace is propulsive, moving chapter by chapter through disasters and the policies that followed them, and the emotional register stays mostly controlled and analytical, rising to outrage at key moments. Its people are mainly economists, politicians, and the citizens caught in upheaval, shown through their decisions and their consequences. Intensity is high in subject matter: it covers torture, military coups, war, and the aftermath of natural catastrophes, described factually and sometimes harrowingly, though not gratuitously. It is for readers who want to understand how power and crisis intersect, and who don't mind sitting with uncomfortable history.
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