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saxifrage_seldon's review
5.0
David Harvey's 2005 book focuses on the causes, operations, and impacts of what scholars call neoliberalism. Neoliberalism can be defined as an economic regime focused on deregulation, privatization, financialization, and a greater emphasis on the market with the withdrawal from the state. Neoliberalism also focuses on destroying organized labor power and social welfare programs in the name of individualism and freedom. Harvey’s central argument in this book, based on the work of Gérard Duménil and Dominique Lévy, is that neoliberalism was as much a political project as it was an economic transformation. That political project was one to restore class power to the rich, shaping neoliberalism as an economic regime not meant to generate wealth (which Harvey argues it hasn’t) but instead redistribute wealth to the poor and middle classes back to the wealthy. In addition to a political project, Harvey notes that neoliberalism is a failed utopian project unable to realize its theoretical design laid out by economists such as Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman. Another important aspect of this book is Harvey’s argument that while neoliberalism is meant to mark the withdrawal from the state, it is highly dependent on state power to institute its goals. Furthermore, Harvey argues that in addition to the state apparatus, neoliberalism needs buy-in from the citizenry, which he notes was gained through a double effort of coercion of the poor and dispossessed and consent from the wealthier classes. Despite these central arguments, Harvey’s book is so much more. He looks at the uneven development of neoliberal policies throughout the world during the last quarter of the twentieth century and the role of and transformations within China. Moreover, he applies his previous theory of “accumulation of dispossession” to neoliberalism, which argues that capitalist accumulation is predicated on a continuing system of destruction and dispossession of people and social organizations. I really liked the final chapter, in that Harvey delves deeply into neoliberalism’s focus on the freedoms and rights of the individual and posits a whole other set of freedom and rights that these tenants ignore. For example, we have the freedom and right to choose different doctors in a neoliberal state, but we don’t have the freedom and rights that come with being unhealthy because we are denied health care. While this book is almost 20 years old and largely responds to the neoliberal and neoconservative movements pushed by the Bush administration, it is a great book for explaining the foundations of the global economic impacts since it was written. These impacts include the 2008 financial crash, the growth of authoritarianism and populism in the political sphere, Brexit, the collapse of supply chains during COVID, and our most recent banking crises, such as the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, to name a few. In other words, in my opinion, the book is still relevant and still important.
dw_hanna's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
3.5
Nothing really new here and incredibly dry but it’s a good primer on how we got where we are.
pensivemoose's review
3.0
Second half was not so accessible but I still learned a lot. Especially about the historical context of the rise of neoliberalism.
maliaode's review against another edition
5.0
Although I listened to the audiobook, I felt like this listen was just skimming the surface and I want to revisit this book again, perhaps reading it the next time. Regardless, this was really valuable in how it situated the research I’m doing in the broader neoliberal capitalist sphere that’s been woven into the fabric of American society. Really appreciated the implications of greed’s danger to people and to our natural world. It sickens me to hear more details about how the elite consistently disregard the lives of others and our planet as a whole for their unsustainable greed.
mooreaarose's review
3.0
Had to read this for class, and in terms of books I’ve had to read for school this wasn’t too bad. Harvey makes some solid points. I now have a more thorough understanding of how deeply entrenched neoliberalism is in our world today. My one complaint was that it was hard to follow at times. The author would spend too long explaining a minor point and wouldn’t solidly connect it back to neoliberalism. He lost the forest for the trees. There were good real world examples to support the theory.