The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

Written by Naomi Klein

Narrated by Jennifer Wiltsie

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: Sep 18, 2007
• ISBN: 9781427200891

Naomi Klein

Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist, columnist, and author of the New York Times and international bestsellers The Shock Doctrine, No Logo, This Changes Everything, and No Is Not Enough. A Senior Correspondent for The Intercept, reporter for Rolling Stone, and contributor for both The Nation and The Guardian, Klein is the inaugural Gloria Steinem Endowed Chair in Media, Culture, and Feminist Studies at Rutgers University. She is cofounder of the climate justice organization The Leap.

Reviews for The Shock Doctrine

[smstrango · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A documentation of the often ignored abuses funded by US.

[blacklistedalexandria · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really hate how this book showed me a completely different side of post 9/11 america. Hate is in a good way. As a child, that was feed the propaganda and hysteria following the horrific desalination I knew two things. 1: my friends siblings were dying. 2:I hated everything to do with the word war. Given the perspective that war and mistreatment of people, from multiple nations, we subjected to sub-human conditions for the advancement of a free market economy makes me sick. To see how places and organizations I’m hearing about now as an adult, have always had their grubby fingers in the governments and have actively taken pains to keep the public locked out of the reconstruction for their own homes and community makes me angry. I’m angry that we as a public haven’t taken action before this point.
The book has an excellent job attacking these issues in a way that is both digestible and easy understand . Though I will say there are some time at the content become very upsetting, especially when the author talks about Baghdad/Iraq. I almost cried in that portion of the book. And while some of the slogans and jargon of economics in general can be offputting and make the book feel dense, it still maintained sort of this informative, but not unattainable interaction with the material.

[sylvie.ellet · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What an eye opening book! It made me understand so many of the things that are going wrong nowadays..
An absolute must read!

[FranciscoXavierDíaz · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is one of those books that make you see the world in a whole different light, although in this case darkness; however, this knowledge is indispensable to fight for the light. I've never felt that I should read all of the books of an author until now. This is my first book or Naomi Klein, thank you for your magnificent work! Sincerely, Fran.

[Pre-Owned Politics · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is an essential explanation of how disaster capitalism works. The main case studies are Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq war. This book predated the 2008 crisis by about a year, but the methods described were implemented then, just like Hurricane Katrina.

Understanding disaster capitalism is essential to understanding why the Covid-19 bailouts are going to immediately increase inequality.

Your government is screwing you.

[Benjamin Brubaker · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Shockingly good and relevant! 5 bags of popcorn and a roll of paper towels??????

[zigi · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The best book I've red so far! A must for everybody interested in how capitalists shape our world today. After reading it you will change your perspective on how the world economy functions.

[Margaret Mora · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Must read for everyone, especially high school students. The future is in their hands...May 2020

[Paul Himmelman · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book should be required reading in America. So many harmful myths still perpetuated today would meet their immediate demise.

[stuartaston · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I don't normally read non-fiction and this has been sitting on my book shelf for a while now but, once I started, I couldn't put it down.The book covers the South American economies of the 70's, Thatchers UK in the 80's, the Asian financial crisis of 1997 through to the occupation of Iraq. It covers how the CIA tested out ideas of shock therapy on people to re-build them and how this was used on economies in need of support or in some cases of regime change (though the latter was always in the eyes of America).The idea was to bring great "improvements" there had to be a major event that caused so much shock to allow governments to be able to do whatever they wanted (i.e. 9/11). The books shows cases such as this and even though the poorest suffered and the large companies gained this never stopped the IMF putting this forward each time as the solution to get money.While reading this book the Euro crisis rumbles on....Greece is protesting about cuts and the IMF loan money but want a more open society where privatisation occurs. And as you read the book you can link each happening in Greece to what you are reading. Scarey but you see how the wheels of the world are working. Definately worth the read.

[sentinel83 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is quite possibly one of the best books I have ever read and I want everyone I know to read it. It is well researched, disturbing, and extremely informative. I am very happy I decided to read this book.

[ireadthereforeiam · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In the light of Christchurch's recent devastating earthquakes, and ensuing changes to our school and education policies, I was excited to read in the first chapter about "Disaster Capitalism" being a well established method of pushing through unpopular economic reform. The economic reform is generally comprised of three things: privatisation, government spending cuts and deregulation (free-trade). And the disaster, although in our case was a natural one, can be in the form of war, civil unrest, the bottoming out of an economy- all of which can be manufactured, btw.This book looks in depth at the situations we have all heard of in various countries over the last 40 years. Chile in the 1970s when popular socialist leader Allende was overthrown by US backed General Pinochet is heralded as the first "experiment" in using shock tactics to bring in free-trade. It was also one of the most harsh on the general population. People were "shocked" into submission by violence, torture, imprisonment, and by being "disappeared" if they displayed so much as a skerrick of left-wing ideals. With the public silenced, the economy was transformed into what would eventually leave a few multi-nationals very very rich, and Chileans without government/military connections, very very poor.It is very difficult not to cast America as the bad guy here. The IMF and the World Bank both had policies to make loans dependent on the implementation of the three aspects discussed above- known collectively as the Washington Consensus. They stepped in when countries were in crisis, and then had them by the balls for the foreseeable future. The IMF and World Bank were (and are?) populated by proponents of the Chicago School of Economics thinking. Right-wing free-trade-at-any-cost economists. These guys hold tight to the idea that without any government controls, economies not only flourish, but have unlimited growth (personally I have huge problems with this theory, not the least of which is the fact the unlimited growth is impossible based on the fact that there is a limit to natural resources).The book goes on to discuss Argentina, Russia's transformation from communist state to extreme capitalist zone, Britain under Thatcher, Poland, China's opening up, South Africa, Sri Lanka post tsunami, Iraq war and Israel in great detail and providing a side of the story that you would never have read about in the papers. The lengths that were gone to to implement economic reform are incredible. The level of crony-ism and back room deals played out between politicians and US policy advisors, the IMF and business leaders is astounding.This book reads like a thriller, one in which you cannot wait for the good guys to come in and rescue the masses. The idealist in me thinks the good guys are coming, but the realist in me knows that where there is multi-millions to be made, the greedy will not stop at any cost to feather their own nests.

[Aubin Duncan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Outstanding book that should be required high school reading! If unabashed capitalism makes your skin crawl as it does mine, this book will be difficult to get through, but absolutely necessary to be a well informed, dissenting citizen.

The quality of the recording, however, was problematic at times. It would cut out randomly causing me to miss portions of the text. Perhaps some kind of update needs to be done to fix this?

[azrowan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If you want to change the path we're on, you need to understand where we are going to change direction. This is a well written look at the art of disaster capitalism and the Friedmanites who carry it on to this day.

[06nwingert · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Shock Doctrine is a brillant expose on world economics and politics. Naomi Klein follows in the footsteps of Upton Singclair as a muckracking, investigating journalist. The Shock Doctrine, Klein argues, is an attempt by politicians on both sides of the isle to exploit disasters, including economic, political, man-made and natural. Politicians use these disasters as cover to pass extreme agendas that target public services, including education and housing. For example, George Bush passed No Child Left Behind shortly after September 11. No Child Left Behind was designed to fail, eventually forcing parents to send their children to private religious schools. In other words, it was designed to circumvent the separation of church and state and eliminate public education. Another education example Klein cites are charter schools in post-Katrina New Orleans. Most of the public schools were wiped out in the hurricane. Rather than spending money to rebuild public schools, the government turned them into private charter schools, which have their own rules. Because New Orleans is a mostly African-American community, these charter schools have their own rules and don't follow the Constitution giving African-Americans equal status; thus, the African-American community in New Orleans is purposely getting a substandard education, thanks to the government. A third example Klein cites is the outsourcing of U.S. military activities in Iraq to Halliburton and Blackwater. These companies run Iraq the way they want, not the way Iraqis want, and, in the process, produce revenue. In other words, we sacrifice democracy for profit. The Shock Doctrine is not a "everyone should read this book," it a book that everyone MUST read. When you finish, you'll say "no wonder the world is so screwed up."

[dshealy812 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Utter rubbish that ignores the cultures of nearly every example she uses as failures not of capitalism but of stunning examples of corporate cronyism. Is the right correct in this, no? Were Soviets better off under communism? Absolutely not. This shouldn’t be as angering to me as it is, considering the author was raised by avowed communists, but the level of disingenuous drivel is astonishing.

[kalliegrace · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This made my stomach hurt. I knew bits and pieces of this but having it all laid out like this is tough. I'm pretty against capitalism at this point, but this really paints a picture as to why.

[markusnenadovus · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Naomi certainly makes some interesting points and has done heavy duty research. What she is saying strikes a chord with many people, which explains why this book receives so many positive reviews.Unfortunately, though, the vitriolic nature of this work makes Naomi seem like a loose cannon or a hammer looking for a nail. She doesn't pretend to hide her contempt for privitization, Milton Friedman, free market capitalism, Chicago school economics, and what not. There is no pretense of balance as she employees jackhammer-style reasoning (often with little proof). She doesn't account for the subtleties of the issues involved. In her her jackhammer approach, a spade is a spade and if it isn't--it becomes one. She flattens distinctions and broadsides nuances into flat surfaces. And, as it has already been pointed out elsewhere, Naomi uses every rhetorical trick in the book.Her attacks on Milton Friedman are particularly vitriolic. And yet the system she critiques as being "Friedmanite" doesn't even come close to implementing his ideals fully! Klein attacks Friedman for supporting tyranny in Chile, but really, all Friedman did was advise the Chilean government, and those reforms were implemented to some degree. Hardly cause to attack Friedman's character. And, of course, Naomi lists bad things that happened under free-market systems, but doesn't contrast that with what happened under those same countries under a government regulated economy. According to Naomi, the Cato Institute is neo-conservative and FDR's New Deal was not only good, but necessary. OK. I'll have to differ on that, but let's continue..Be prepared for nauzeating buzz-words with no value except for emotional and rhetorical: "Corporate new jerusalem", "balooning corporate power", "radical free market", "corporatist", "dazzling rich and disposable poor", "corporate supremisist", "the rise of corpratism", "ultra-conservative", "maniacal quest", "the corporatist alliance", etc.Naomi does have a valid critique regarding the way the government panders to big firms and, in privitization, plays political games. But that is not really a critique of true free-market capitalism, but rather it a critique of a particular form of government intervention over against another form of it.There's no doubt that Naomi is quite sharp and intelligent and that this book is no small feat. But, really, I suggest you look elsewhere if you want a balanced critique from a similar perspective. There isn't much in this book to commend it to you. The unique true facts in this book can be found elsewhere, and without the poisonous vitriol.And in closing, if you've already read Naomi's attack on Milton Friedman, do yourself a favor and read his ideas first hand--in "Capitalism and Freedom". He deserves a fair evaluation--without Naomi's sarcastic, slanted rhetoric.

[spoko_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'm largely convinced by this book, though it does feel a bit thin overall, and more than once I found myself shying away from the alarmism that seems to run beneath it. Still, Klein has an awful lot of believable facts on her side; enough to paint the picture of a powerful group of people only too happy to pounce on any crisis for financial and ideological gain. She certainly makes short work of Milton Friedman himself, and doesn't leave much wiggle room for his neocon disciples. She covers a lot of ground relatively quickly, however, and in doing so she doesn't always manage to support her arguments. Once or twice too often, she allows it to rest on circumstance and innuendo. She may be accurate in her assessment, or she may not. And the book is certainly a compelling read. But one suspects that a bit more thoroughness might have yielded more tempered—if less provocative—conclusions. Overall, though, as I began by saying, I buy a lot of what she's selling. I hadn't expected to find much more reason to be cynical about the neocon agenda, but how wrong I was. That said, her concluding chapter is genuinely uplifting, and gives you plenty of reason for hope if you're not uninterested in such things.

[therebelprince · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A foundation text for the 21st century revolution. One of my new faves.

[andjhostet-527429 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An extremely eye opening book. It goes into detail on the evils of capitalism and how those in power can use "shock treatment" to capitalize on disasters and use these as opportunities to transfer wealth from the local people to the hands of corporatist oligarchs.

[widdersyns · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book made me feel sick. It gave me nightmares. My only regret about reading it is that I didn't read it sooner. It's a huge shock--ha-- to find out that the country that prides itself on being a paragon of democracy has done so much to destroy it. If the current pandemic has begun to open your eyes to the brutality of capitalism, you need this book. Actually, everyone needs this book.

[sonorandreamer-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

We live in scary times, as capitalists find new ways to profit from labor and land.

[JuanmaRobledo · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent. The author explores the different countries where neoliberalism has been implemented, starting with the dictatorships of Chile and Argentina. A book that completely captivated me and became my favorite. (Translated from Spanish)

[tukakopon · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Essential to understand the current situation. (Translated from Spanish)

[brokentune · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Reading The Shock Doctrine, I got flashbacks to reading No Logo all those years ago when I was a student. Klein's writing was eye-opening back then, and her case studies and research made even a dry brick of a book a project that I could not set down.

It is the same experience with this one. The sheer amount of detail and background make Klein's book very addictive because it feels like an attempt at keeping a record of events that will probably be edited out of the footnotes of history.

The Shock Doctrine feels like an attempt of holding people accountable, and it is a very timely and thought-provoking read. It's also entirely infuriating. It's very depressing to be reminded that current events/circumstances are the very basis for the disaster capitalism that Klein describes.

The only reason that I am not increasing my rating for this book is that I felt it lacked balance, which was most evident for me when Klein wrote about Hugo Chavez, without any mention of criticism. Granted the book was written in 2008, but still I expected more balance even if I agree with the underlying premise Klein is arguing.

Still, this was again a thought-provoking read and, maybe because of the current events we are living through, I loved that the book ended on the message (paraphrasing here):

What can we do right now to start to bring our community back in spite of the government, not because of it?

[dypaloh · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A public policy book belonging to the horror genre, Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine is an impassioned chronicle of greedy, violent misbehavior. Her purpose is to publicize and dissect the “Chicago School experiment,” by which she means the economic “shock” therapy promulgated and supported by the school of economic thought that she associates most with 1976 Nobel laureate Milton Friedman. She sums up her thesis by writing that “the entire thirty-year history of the Chicago School experiment has been one of mass corruption and corporatist collusion between security states and large corporations.” No pulling punches there.

I read Friedman’s Free to Choose long ago. It was an easy introduction to his notions and influenced my thinking. That title, Free to Choose, represents a colossal irony if we accept Klein’s accusations of the way freedom and citizen welfare are sacrificed to achieve national economic and political transformation through the principles and prescriptions she attributes to the Chicago School. But, should we accept her accusations?

Four prominent demands of the Chicago School are as follows:
(1) Privatization of public enterprises and resources;
(2) Economic deregulation;
(3) Tax cuts;
(4) Deep cuts in government spending.
While people should debate the merits of these demands, I do not see anything inherently immoral about them if the efforts to implement them are done peaceably with consent.

However, as implemented in nations such as Indonesia, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, South Africa, China, Poland, Russia, Sri Lanka, and elsewhere, Klein’s version of the Chicago School’s Friedmanomics takes on the garb of some kind of ghoulish Freakishnomics. Her intent is to show that in these countries it meant all or some of the following:
(1) Overthrow of the ruling government, often by violence, even when that government was legally elected by voters in accord with their country’s constitution;
(2) Capture and torture of opponents or presumed opponents;
(3) Terrorist acts against the citizenry, including murder;
(4) Enrichment of the richest classes of the nation, with some high bureaucrats also becoming plutocrats themselves;
(5) Foreign takeover of profitable businesses and gaining of the right to exploit the nation’s natural resources;
(6) Impoverishment of workers;
(7) Discontinuation or diminishment of many social services;
(8) “Debt bomb” detonation to conquer the willfulness of governments resisting Chicago School policies.
All these actions, among other lapses of polite behavior, to be carried out in the interest of multinational corporations.

How about that for an eight-fold path? Feeling the Zen?

This isn’t a program citizens of conscience normally ask their leaders to pursue, so there’s one other crucial element: Sell it as an absolute necessity to the preserving of freedom, peace, prosperity, and security. But also, if doable, skimp on the selling and establish the package by coercive force brought with such speed and rude brutality that it will seem a reckoning brought forth by the gods. SHOCK, baby!

Why, one might as well revert to Aristotle’s contention in the Politics that “hunting ought to be practiced—not only against animals, but also against human beings who are intended by nature to be ruled by others and refuse to obey that intention—because war of this order is naturally just.” Klein might say that’s exactly what has happened.

The question becomes how fair and correct her account is. For example, her reports of better economic outcomes in some countries with “managed” economies come across as supported by cherry-picked data, a common fault of those engaged in political persuasion. Suppose she has done this? Is it enough to justify rejecting her outrage and accepting the shocking eight-fold path she describes? Do her misjudgments about leaders such as Hugo Chavez wholly invalidate the critique?

Prior political inclinations will do much to color how one responds to this book. It’s not perfect. Ambitious books, passionately argued, aren’t. To some readers it will feel like a defamation, which reaches its height in Klein’s account of the war in Iraq. It attempts to revolutionize some of our most confidently (complacently?) held ideas about U.S. and corporate behavior throughout the world. If you are ill-disposed to accepting Klein’s biases or theses, focusing on the acts she describes and asking, “IS THIS WHAT I’D WANT ANOTHER NATION TO DO TO MY OWN COUNTRY?” can still make The Shock Doctrine an informative, dynamic, even necessary reading experience.

[martinsilva19 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent book. It contains a lot of interesting information and a prose worthy of the best journalistic accounts. The author shows us how aspects of the life we lead today are the result of decisions made for the benefit of a few.
Far from being a mere objective narrator, throughout the book, the author’s indignation is felt as she shares the results of her research.
Although its length and the amount of information it offers can make it a bit heavy to read, the effort is worth it. It is very hard not to share the author's indignation upon finishing it. (Translated from Spanish)

[lavaturtle · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is an incredibly important book that connects a number of seemingly disparate events from the late 20th and early 21st centuries via an economic ideology underpinning them. I learned a hell of a lot about a bunch of historical events, in addition to the unifying narrative that Klein was drawing. The prose is refreshingly readable for a nonfiction book. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone else looking to understand what happened geopolitically in the last few decades and why right-wing economic policies appear to have gotten so popular worldwide.

[Andrs987 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A voracious investigation with an intensity of tragic, disappointing, unfortunately present data, and seemingly endless worst of all. The information shared in this book is essential to understanding the other side of the story that systemic power wishes to keep hidden. (Translated from Spanish)