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Amazon.co.uk Review
The Silent Takeover might be thought of as something of a contradiction in terms. In the world of modern mergers and acquisitions, hardly a single transaction goes by without noisy comment from every conceivable angle. But the Takeover here is of an altogether different order, referring to the takeover of the planet itself rather than a business rival. Did you know that of the world's largest economies, 51 are now corporations and only 49 are nation-states? You do now.
Noreena Hertz gives an evocative and highly readable account of economic change over the past two decades. Such material in the wrong hands can be stultifingly boring, but this is fast and accessible, personal, almost intimate. The reader is left in little doubt of the author's view that not everyone benefits from the capitalist dream (the work is, after all, subtitled Global Capitalism and the Death of Democracy). "The 20-year neo-liberal experiment that began in Westminster and Washington has not delivered for all of us".
One would expect to see the names of Rupert Murdoch, Ted Turner, Time Warner, General Electric and McDonalds in any review of the rise and rise of the corporate giant. But Big Brother, Buddha, 2001: A Space Odyssey, the Ku Klux Klan and Soylent Green? Noreena Hertz, once an investment banker in Russia, now based at the University of Cambridge, draws attention to the apocalyptic visions of several films of the 1970s. Included in the list is Rollerball, a depiction of life on earth after a series of corporate wars. Anyone who thought that far-fetched in the 1970s might care to reconsider, she ventures to suggest. "A world in which Rupert Murdoch has more power than Tony Blair, and corporations set the political agenda, is frightening and undemocratic", she writes. "We stand today at a critical juncture. If we do nothing... all is lost", she concludes. --Brian Bollen --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"Dr Hertz is one of the world's leading young thinkers, whose agenda-setting book on corporate power is already sparking intense debate on both sides of the Atlantic." -- "Observer"
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read a good deal of No Logo before becoming fed up with what I read to be a polemic... I didn't like the book, because Klein states her opinions as facts, and gives little evidence to back up much of what she says.
However, I paricularly liked The Silent Takeover because she prsents an ibjective argument with plenty of evidence. It is up-to-date, including events which couldn't have happened more than a short while before publication. It is not wholly negative and biased against big business, as No Logo seems to be, and gives a number of reasons why business is good.
She examines why business, in many cases, seems to be better than government - it's more flexible, less beaurocratic, and able to quickly adjust to consumer demands if it wants.
In examining the role of the WTO and World Bank, she points out the good and bad of each.
A strong book, well-argued and definitely one to replace No Logo on your coffee table... stand out from the crowd!
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In this accessible book Noreena Hertz draws a frightening picture of our contemporary world, where corporations acquire more and more power over ordinary citizens and national governments and eventually replace democracy and take over the planet. Underlining her argument with numerous examples, facts and figures she argues that democratically elected governments seek to create an environment that suits businesses rather than their voters.
Hertz, however, admits to be neither strictly anti-capitalist nor anti-business. She is one of the 'critical globalisationists', like Hirst and Thompson, but nevertheless, makes it clear that she believes that not everyone benefits from globalisation. Passionately, she defends people, democracy and justice without glorifying governments or states, which in her view have 'a clear role to play in society' (p.13) but fail to live up to it in practice.
Although Hertz writes about the international economy and the changes that happened during the past three decades in this field, the book is by no means tedious. This is thanks to the many examples she uses but without over using statistics and figures. Hertz tells her story with a very personal touch and mixes her experiences with those of real life people, whom she undoubtedly admires. There is Granny D, a 91-year-old American grandmother who walked thousands of miles across America to deliver her speeches against corrupt politicians. Or on the other side of the Atlantic, she finds Oskar Lafontaine, the former German Finance Minister, who said on the day of his resignation 'the heart is not traded on the stock market yet.'
Hertz does not limit her examination of 'the silent takeover' to America but looks more closely at Europe, than does for example Naomi Klein in No Logo. Here she discovers that almost the same things happen, only perhaps on a smaller scale. For example she describes how corporations buy influence and action by donating large amounts of money to party election campaigns. And how, in fact, politicians spend more time and effort on raising funds for their campaigns than on finding solutions for social problems.
She argues, that this is then the reason for low turnouts on election days. People have lost their trust in politicians, as they seem to be unable to solve the problems most eminent to the average citizen. Hertz sees this as an indicator for the beginning of the death of democracy and the triumph of corporations.
Her views that in the contemporary world, the consumer has more power to change things than the voter has are certainly disputable. However, she has a point when she highlights that through boycott campaigns the consumer can sometimes actively change the way corporations conduct business but the voter can only chose between increasingly homogenous politicians with the same inability to solve problems seen as most urgent by the people: health, education and unemployment.
Overall, Hertz writes a consistent book with some excellent parts but does not tell the reader anything fundamentally new.
Hertz, however, admits to be neither strictly anti-capitalist nor anti-business. She is one of the 'critical globalisationists', like Hirst and Thompson, but nevertheless, makes it clear that she believes that not everyone benefits from globalisation. Passionately, she defends people, democracy and justice without glorifying governments or states, which in her view have 'a clear role to play in society' (p.13) but fail to live up to it in practice.
Although Hertz writes about the international economy and the changes that happened during the past three decades in this field, the book is by no means tedious. This is thanks to the many examples she uses but without over using statistics and figures. Hertz tells her story with a very personal touch and mixes her experiences with those of real life people, whom she undoubtedly admires. There is Granny D, a 91-year-old American grandmother who walked thousands of miles across America to deliver her speeches against corrupt politicians. Or on the other side of the Atlantic, she finds Oskar Lafontaine, the former German Finance Minister, who said on the day of his resignation 'the heart is not traded on the stock market yet.'
Hertz does not limit her examination of 'the silent takeover' to America but looks more closely at Europe, than does for example Naomi Klein in No Logo. Here she discovers that almost the same things happen, only perhaps on a smaller scale. For example she describes how corporations buy influence and action by donating large amounts of money to party election campaigns. And how, in fact, politicians spend more time and effort on raising funds for their campaigns than on finding solutions for social problems.
She argues, that this is then the reason for low turnouts on election days. People have lost their trust in politicians, as they seem to be unable to solve the problems most eminent to the average citizen. Hertz sees this as an indicator for the beginning of the death of democracy and the triumph of corporations.
Her views that in the contemporary world, the consumer has more power to change things than the voter has are certainly disputable. However, she has a point when she highlights that through boycott campaigns the consumer can sometimes actively change the way corporations conduct business but the voter can only chose between increasingly homogenous politicians with the same inability to solve problems seen as most urgent by the people: health, education and unemployment.
Overall, Hertz writes a consistent book with some excellent parts but does not tell the reader anything fundamentally new.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Noreena Hertz impresses as a thinker who has studied the problem of Globalisation.A thoroughly researched topic,ruthlessly drawn conclusions from facts,sincere and simple narrative style and above all an ardent championing of a very important cause-in fact a life and death issue- for Humanity make this an invaluable work.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Grossly Overated
I was really looking forward to reading this and I understood that it foretold the banking crisis of 2008. But I found that it did nothing of the kind. Read more
Published 9 months ago by R19
Desperately disappointing
Read the other reviews of this work and you'll see that they describe the book as a description or "painting a picture". The reason for this is that Hertz's book has no structure. Read more
Published on 18 Dec 2009 by dilaudid
Messy and Muddled
I completeley agree with the review below. This book lacks both coherant arguement or seemingly any structure whatsoever. Read more
Published on 13 July 2007 by Darkswan
detailed case study, simplistic answers
I was quite impressed with the case studies she made for the book, however the response to dealing with such difficult and taxing issues were somewhat naive and simplistic. Read more
Published on 6 Dec 2004
Patronising and meretricious
This book is little more than a cobbling together of anecdotes with no central core of thought. The tone of the commentary is patronising with no real attention paid to the... Read more
Published on 3 Jun 2004 by Barton Keyes
A good introduction to an important subject
I liked this book; it was amazingly easy to read, without being trite or condescending. Many of the stories and anecdotes I knew from other readings, but there was new material,... Read more
Published on 16 Oct 2003 by Keith Appleyard
All hype, no substance
Hertz's book, like Hertz herself, is a real disappointment. A former banker and arch-Thatcherite who spent her formative years forcing gangster capitalism onto the unwary Russians... Read more
Published on 11 July 2003 by Mike Bullock
The most balanced, reasoned book on the subject
The impacts of globalisation and general disillusionment with the political process have been the subject of a number of books on both sides of the Atlantic - but where the likes... Read more
Published on 5 Mar 2003 by Mr. Paul J. Bradshaw
An interesting balanced read
Noreena Hertz premise is; with the state now seeking to serve corporations rather than citizens, and an unwillingness to intervene on our behalf, it is now up to consumers to... Read more
Published on 9 July 2002 by D. Martin
A perceptive analysis of the culture of globalisation.
'There shall be greater rejoicing in Heaven at one sinner who repents than at 100 just men.' (or something like that). Read more
Published on 28 May 2002 by Ruari McCallion
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