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leavingsealevel's review
2.0
This is an interesting book. The back story may ring a bell - Churchill was a professor at CU Boulder before losing tenure for writing this. His basic premise--that the US has done untold numbers of bad things around the world and within its own borders, in flagrant violation of both international law and basic decency, was not news. Pointing this out certainly doesn't seem like something that merits losing tenure--but few things do, to me, or what's the point of tenure?!
My big problem with the book (and I'm sure this is the librarian in me speaking) is that lack of sufficient *footnotes.* Cite your sources. Geez. For the most part his facts seem to check out, or are easy to track down, but he does make several rather outrageous claims that there's no way I'm going to take seriously without footnotes.
One thing this has really made me think about is the UN...the point of having "international law" if one country continually violates it...and why the heck do we have a veto on the Security Council? Actually why does any country? It's completely absurd (to give one example) that the US can screw up Nicaragua and then veto a SC resolution condemning us for doing just that. Sort of defeats the purpose, yes?
I bought [b:The Shock Doctrine|1237300|The Shock Doctrine The Rise of Disaster Capitalism|Naomi Klein|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1191192741s/1237300.jpg|2826418] when I was in Denver and expect it to hopefully make similar points and expand on what I've read here in a more responsibly footnoted, slightly less dogmatic manner.
My big problem with the book (and I'm sure this is the librarian in me speaking) is that lack of sufficient *footnotes.* Cite your sources. Geez. For the most part his facts seem to check out, or are easy to track down, but he does make several rather outrageous claims that there's no way I'm going to take seriously without footnotes.
One thing this has really made me think about is the UN...the point of having "international law" if one country continually violates it...and why the heck do we have a veto on the Security Council? Actually why does any country? It's completely absurd (to give one example) that the US can screw up Nicaragua and then veto a SC resolution condemning us for doing just that. Sort of defeats the purpose, yes?
I bought [b:The Shock Doctrine|1237300|The Shock Doctrine The Rise of Disaster Capitalism|Naomi Klein|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1191192741s/1237300.jpg|2826418] when I was in Denver and expect it to hopefully make similar points and expand on what I've read here in a more responsibly footnoted, slightly less dogmatic manner.
chuckmunson's review
5.0
A well-documented, savage indictment of the United States by this noted author, activist and social critic. Half of the book is dedicated to detailing all of the United Nations resolutions on human rights that the U.S. government blocked and vetoed.
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