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Naomi Klein, No Logo (Picador USA, January 2000; December 2000) This now notorious book was published only weeks after the November 1999 anti-WTO protests in Seattle, which brought to prominence the global protest movement of which Klein has since become the most recognized figure. No Logo's central theme was that corporations have gained excessive power over our lives; that simple idea was _ and still is _ the major thread that ties together the highly diverse ideas woven into the movement. Klein argues that capitalism underwent a major shift in the late eighties when major corporations began focusing on selling brands, rather than products. With skyrocketing advertising budgets and creative new marketing ploys, companies such as Nike, McDonald's and Starbucks created lifestyles and new identities. They penetrated every public space and co-opted every form of opposition, to the point where they provoked a boomerang effect. Since the book was written before Seattle, when this boomerang seized the public's attention, Klein's analysis is instructive, especially for the countless journalists who tend to portray Seattle as the starting point of the global anti-corporate movement. Seattle was indeed a watershed moment, but No Logo definitively shows that there had been stirrings of dissent long before. Klein examines various means of anti-corporate resistance that have been virtually forgotten since a mass movement emerged, such as anti-sweatshop campus agitation, culture jamming and urban space liberation. No Logo has become a movement bible. Like the movement itself, the book is weakened by its reticence to propose solutions. Yet its criticisms are original and Klein's engaging, radical tone is irresistible for anyone disturbed by the triumphalist spread of the 1990s neoliberal order. Naomi Klein is reviled by her critics and adored by her fans, who have unofficially elected her their journalist of record. MORE: The No Logo Web site New York Times Book Review book review Guardian interview Why Naomi Klein Needs to Grow Up in The Economist: Profile on Naomi Klein in the Village Voice, by Joy Press: Gary Marshall of Spike Magazine likes the book: Kendra Okonski, in The National Review, doesn't: Amazon |
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