By Kevin Chan, Alumni

If you are familiar with Naomi Klein’s bestselling non-fiction No Logo, you probably already have a good idea about the style, and calibre of writing that you might expect to be reading in her latest novel, The Shock Doctrine. Published in 2007, it is a literal behemoth consisting of over 560 pages of meticulous research and mind-numbing fact after mind-numbing figure.

Be forewarned, Klein herself has stated that No Logo is equivalent to a “childhood bedtime story” when compared to The Shock Doctrine.

Based on the book’s subtitle, Klein’s goal seems to be the documentation of “The Rise of Disaster Capitalism,” in which I feel she has more than succeeded. A major feature of this book is a comparison of the theories of psychiatric ‘shock therapy’ to the theories of economic ‘shock therapy:’ the idea that if enough stress is applied to the mind (or the economy), what previously existed will be erased, and a ‘blank slate,’ to rebuild upon, will be all that remains.

Don’t let me mislead you; although The Shock Doctrine is a serious work of non-fiction, it’s anything but dull. Both highly informative and gripping, it’s probably one of few historical works that will keep you on the edge of your seat: with your emotions in overdrive. Klein’s retelling of the last three decades of neo-liberalization is at times so tragic that at several points I felt it necessary to take an extended break in order to be able to digest everything I’d read, and recover emotionally.

It is unlikely that you will find a more comprehensive account of the last thirty years of world economic history anywhere else. Beginning at the Chicago School of Economics, and subsequently ‘going global’ in Argentina, Chile, Poland, Iraq, South Africa, Russia, South Asia, and a myriad of other countries and regions, a tale of treachery by American Multinational Corporations, but particularly the World Bank and International Monetary Fund becomes apparent.

The Shock Doctrine is nothing less than an exposé about the secrets of the ‘free market.’ Without denouncing capitalism outright, she presents a powerful case that all is not well with the state of our economy and the unrestricted free market system. No longer need we worry about the petty Military Industrial Complex, for in its place is the Disaster Capitalism Complex, which literally makes billions of dollars from humanitarian disasters such as the 2004 South Asian Tsunami, while exploiting other crisis such as the 1973 coup in Chile, 1982 Falklands War, 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, and the 2001 terrorist attacks. All of this leads to unpopular and undemocratic economic ‘reforms’ being pushed to the wayside – reforms that make windfall profits for some and shove hundreds of thousands of others into corporate built slums.

If these topics seem heavy, it’s because they are. Don’t worry though; Klein does an excellent job of putting a human face to each disaster with both her own personal accounts and interviews with individuals living through ‘structural adjustment programs.’ Consider reading a few chapters of The Shock Doctrine; I think you will find this to be one book worth reading.