Fences and Windows
Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate
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3.6 • 8 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Provocative essays from the influential activist and bestselling author of No Logo, exploring the rise of the anti-globalization movement.
Naomi Klein's No Logo is an international bestselling phenomenon. Winner of Le Prix Mediations (France) and the National Business Book Award (Canada), it has been translated into 21 languages and published in 25 countries.
In Fences and Windows, Klein, named one of Ms Magazine's Women of the Year in 2001 and declared by the Times (London) to be "probably the most influential person under the age of 35 in the world," offers a bird's-eye view of the life of an activist and the development of the "anti-globalization" movement from the 1999 Seattle World Trade Organization protests through September 11, 2001. Bringing together columns, speeches, essays, and reportage, Klein provides thought-provoking arguments on a broad range of issues, from the privatization of water and genetically modified food to "free trade" and the movement's future post-9/11.
As one of the most brilliant activists and thinkers of her generation, Naomi Klein's insightful commentary in Fences and Windows is essential reading for anyone interested in globalization, activism, and the political and economic forces shaping our world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The success of Klein's No Logo, a slashing account of how corporations actively go after "market share" and the global misery that can result, makes anticipation for her next project high. As Klein notes in her preface, this book is more a stopgap than a follow-up. Covering the period of late 1999 to 2002, the book collects Klein's in-the-trenches journalism about sweatshops, genetically modified foods, evolving police tactics for crowd control and more. The two title images recur throughout: the fences are real, steel cages keeping protesters from interfering with summits, but they are also metaphorical, such as the "fence" of poverty that prevents the poor from receiving adequate education or health care. Klein argues that globalization has only delivered its promised benefits to the world's wealthiest citizens and that its emphasis on privatization has eroded the availability of public services around the globe. Critics have suggested that the "anti-globalization" movement (a term loathed, Klein notes, by many people actually involved) lacks a cohesive structure, but Klein generally sees this decentralization as a strength, likening the small groups' "hub and spoke" organization to that of linked Web sites. While Klein offers snapshots of success stories involving Nike, Starbucks and other corporate monoliths, she wisely does not suggest any easy solutions to this complex mesh of problems. Despite post September 11 talk to the contrary, these dispatches indicate that the movement is far from over.
