About this title: An analysis of the invasion of our personal lives by logo-promoting, powerful corporations combines muckraking journalism with contemporary memoir to discuss current consumer culture.
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Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. 1999-Paperback----Used-Good-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Picador
Date Published: 2002-04-06
ISBN-13:9780312421434ISBN:0312421435
Description: New. New Book. There is slight time wear. Otherwise looks new. Free tracking # included! International buyers are welcome. We ship every business day. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed! read more
Edition: Sixth Printing
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Picador USA, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780312271923ISBN:0312271921
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Picador
Date Published: 1999-12-01
ISBN-13:9780312271923ISBN:0312271921
Description: New. Brand New. Gift Quality. Book is in perfect condition. Free tracking # included! International buyers are welcome. We ship every business day. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Picador
Date Published: 2002-04-06
ISBN-13:9780312421434ISBN:0312421435
Description: Good. 2002 paperback no marks and is in good condition All of our products are cleaned with an disinfectant for your protection before shipping. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Picador USA, New York
Date Published: 1999
ISBN-13:9780312271923ISBN:0312271921
Description: Very Good. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. xxi, 502 pp., illus., bib. notes, index; 23 cm. Near fine. Tight, clean copy. One page dogeared, otherwise as new. "With a new Afterword to the 2002 edition. No Logo employs journalistic savvy and personal testament to detail the insidious practices and far-reaching effects of corporate marketing-and the powerful potential of a growing activist sect that will surely alter the course of the 21st century. First published before the World Trade Organization ... read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Picador, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1999
ISBN-13:9780312271923ISBN:0312271921
Description: As New. 7 x 9. 490 pgs. illustrated. Analyzes and documents the forces opposing corporate rule, and lays out the particular set of cultural and economic conditions that made the emmergence of that opposition possible. read more
"Sharply written and argued, investigative journalist Naomi Klein's No Logo deserves its status as the go-to text on how corporate globalization is colonizing our cultural spaces in the modern age. Though a bit dated (the edition I read was published in 2000), Klein's careful framing of the influence of corporate propaganda in society is perhaps even more relevant now than when it was written. Klein's analysis of the anti-corporate movement seems rosy, at least in hindsight, and No Logo would have benefited from a deeper examination of the larger issues behind corporate dominance. Do her examples of successful boycotts of one highly exploitative company, with another equally exploitative one taking its place, really give us the hope that she generally suggests they should? How can we tackle the multi-headed monster that is capitalism? Klein does not directly raise this question, though No Logo is nevertheless an invaluable resource for understanding the threat that corporations pose to society."
"I think I've been in the process of reading this book for something like two years so I can't say it's a light, quick read by any stretch. In many ways it is a deeply flawed volume: It isolates its arguments using only a handful of individual companies to the extent that they almost become straw men and a few short paragraphs late in the book explaining the flaw in using a short list of usual suspects doesn't do enough to deflate the sense of repetition throughout. It also takes too long to get to the point, spending a good two thirds of the book trying to convince the reader of the validity of the stated problem of brand politics and globalization long after the point has been made. And even once the book does get to the meat of the matter--what is being done and what can I do to help?--it stumbles along spending too much time exhaustively detailing petty "war on the streets" campaigns that amount to little more than semi-organized vandalism. It's also cute to see a glimpse of the late-90s Internet awe in full effect as the collaborative power of email is breathlessly described as a revolutionary tool capable of facilitating unfathomable social revolution.
Still, it's a compelling tale of a problem that has perhaps been tabled somewhat in the last decade. A glimpse of the reason for this can be found in the afterword written in early 2002 included in the edition I read which sites the climate shift following the September 11 attacks as a catalyst for deflating a lot of the passion that seemed to be building underneath the anti-globalization movement ten years ago. Even if you don't fully buy into Ms. Klein's thesis that ties something cultural like ubiquitous branding to something more political like globalization and corporate-run governments, it still feels like enough of a genuine concern that most every person, organization and institution is more or less happily willing to shill their person and/or environment for some corporation on the basis of a clever ad campaign without regard for that company's actual merit. And somewhere buried underneath a lot of well-researched facts that don't always tie together as smoothly as the author seems to think is enough truth in the grim realities of export processing zones, sweatshops and job flight to find a call to action.
If only the book spent some more time explaining what that action might be, it could have been a less depressing read."
It's a good start to a larger, overarching leftist critique of the way we live now. Klein does a fine job of explaining and exhuming many of the classic discontents of Capitalism, let alone the free-market nuttiness we've come to know. It's worth reading simply for the shedding of some further light on many of the social conditions we seem to take for granted.
The trouble is, she doesn't seem to have much to offer in the way of a viable, significant response- an alternative program.
She makes the point (sort of over-makes it, to my mind) about culture jamming and such and it sure sounds cool and interesting and worthwhile. It's just that it's also more than a little cosmetic and somewhat self-congratulatory and ultimately rather ineffective.
There isn't much in the way of *constructive* criticism, not to patronize the book to death, in that there are many ills correctly and articulately diagnosed but not much in the way of remedy. This is a problem, especially since the argument is known pretty widely in a general way and therefore the need for some kind of counter-program is all the more pressing.
I am going to try Disaster Capitalism one of these days and maybe it will have more of a bolder, tougher, more necessary impact.\ \ ten years after this book's breakthrough success, we've seen many of its concerns rear their ugly head and make so huge and unmistakable and infinitely complex a mark that, discouragingly, it seems we're (people of the left, that is, those may take a lot away from this book and the already converted it preaches to) still standing at square one- acknowledgment- and gazing up at this monolith, and taking the temperature...."
"The cover page reads "No Space, No Choice, No Jobs, No Logo" and that's how the book is broken up, into those four sections. It starts off relatively strong, avoiding a number of pitfalls you expect her to get caught up in. Unfortunately, as it progresses it becomes rather uneven, mostly the last section, "No Logo." The section starts off with a ridiculous chapter about "culture jamming," which is essentially the use of graphic design skills to subvert advertising. This is a perfect example of how she can sometimes come across as a stoned art school girl gushing in a coffee shop about how this ultra-cool hip thing the cool kids are doing is going to save the world. It's a strange contrast to some of her more sober, reality-based commentary. It's worth reading but parts of it may try your patience. That being said, I found some of her (to me) misplaced optimism compelling. I wondered if maybe we Americans aren't too cynical sometimes. Maybe we should be like the Canadians. Of course, Canadians aren't perfect either. It got me wondering though about how a lot of us in the midwest think that people in other parts of the country, especially in the West, tend to be pretty dippy and I couldn't help but think maybe we in the midwest might be too grizzled and world-weary for our own good? Or is it just me? Maybe the whole country is dippy. Maybe vandalizing billboards will put a dent in the corporate oligarchy. I don't think so but it's something to believe in, I suppose, and makes about as much sense as Jesus getting crucified so we can go to heaven, which according to the historian on NPR Christians did not even believe until centuries after Jesus's death. Anyway, I think part of what's going on here is that there are no simple solutions. You can't really propose a solution to the problems discussed in the book in few hundred pages. I mean, you could in general terms, but how will you engage people to get them to focus on something outside of entertainment land? She does seem very conscious of the difficulties. I just get to wondering why she goes overboard gushing about anti-corporate zines and things. Maybe she she didn't want a bleak book, I suppose. I also disagree with her contention that subverting corporate logos can strip them of some of their power. If anything I think it adds a new mystique to the logo and in the long run probably adds more value to the brand. I guess I've mostly talked about the problems with the book. There is value in the book, it just reads like a first book. I think it's pretty clear she'll be remembered for the Shock Doctrine, which is next on my list. I know she has a great capacity for reflectiveness and nuance and I hope she was able to put that to more sustained use over the many pages of The Shock Doctrine..."
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