A review by djmurm
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
I found this book fascinating, infuriating, and helpful when it focused on digging into US imperialism and misrepresentation of its actions abroad -- it led me to do a lot of additional research on my own. Perkins does a great job of connecting dots and providing context for the countries he writes about and he excels in making very complicated histories accessible to a broad audience. I also appreciated how passionately he makes his case, but similarly to Evicted (which I read around the same time as this), both authors chose to include plenty of nostalgia for so-called American values that fails to resonate with or move me emotionally at this point in my life/political journey. While Perkins is quite critical of capitalism, I can't tell what he thinks we should have instead as he also traffics in uncritical (IMO) anti-communism and never advocates for any other economic/social system. I guess he sort of advocates for a more "ethical" capitalism? (I.e. "vote with your dollars")...which, while I get and sort of subscribe to for integrity purposes, still seems like it is missing the point. I appreciate that he is trying to provide some practical next steps for the reader after a scathing indictment of the US capitalist/imperialist system, so I'll give him that. But then I soured again when he threw in some "rah rah" militarism/patriotism at the end of the book about how I should be grateful for the soldiers who died for my freedom...and compared himself to Paul Revere...calm down, John.
It's also hard to get beyond Perkin's white male drama king antics -- I grew tired of hearing his handwringing about feeling guilty about his choices, yet continuing to actively perpetuate American imperialism. He did this for many, many years of his very adult life! And he is rightfully critical of himself, but as a reader, it became repetitive. He also claimed to know that he has a problem regarding his views of women and yet still wrote the book in a way that felt subtly icky/sexist to me at multiple points.
Basically, I wish this book had been written by a different person!! Or someone who centered themself less!
It's also hard to get beyond Perkin's white male drama king antics -- I grew tired of hearing his handwringing about feeling guilty about his choices, yet continuing to actively perpetuate American imperialism. He did this for many, many years of his very adult life! And he is rightfully critical of himself, but as a reader, it became repetitive. He also claimed to know that he has a problem regarding his views of women and yet still wrote the book in a way that felt subtly icky/sexist to me at multiple points.
Basically, I wish this book had been written by a different person!! Or someone who centered themself less!