24 reviews
Sales Rank: 56994

Media: Paperback
Pages: 430
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.3 x 1.2

ISBN: 0330369431
Dewey Decimal Number: 324
EAN: 9780330369435
ASIN: 0330369431

Publication Date: September 7, 2001
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours

Also Available In:

•	Hardcover - Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.co.uk Review
If both George Monbiot's Captive State and Naomi Klein's No Logo are the two Zeitgeist books of the beginning of the 21st century, then it is good old-fashioned late-20th century capitalism that has put them there. While Klein investigates how the counter-culture has been bought out by big business, Monbiot takes a close look at how this green and pleasant isle has been delivered into unaccountable corporate control with disastrous results for local communities and for democracy itself. The project of investigating this process is vast and strewn with problems, not least that a great deal of the material Monbiot needed was not in the public domain. Thus, the book itself is the result of "stargazing on a cloudy night": an impassioned attempt to understand what stellar corporate influence is brought to bear on which governmental constellation before the clouds close over again. Depressingly, he demonstrates how New Labour has smoothly transitioned from anti-corporate opposition to big business bedfellow. Like Klein, Monbiot celebrates grassroots action, but his local heroes are more likely to be drawing up battle lines in Skye, rather than Seattle. In his evocative dealings with those at the rump end of corporate mismanagement and greed, the sense of betrayal is palpable, and Captive State can be seen as a warning shot across New Labour's bows. The devil, though, is in the details. Anonymous brown paper parcels arrive full of classified documents and Monbiot is to be applauded for bringing together a wealth of material and rendering it intelligible and intelligent, if sometimes he doesn't shy away from big theatrical deliveries, especially at the end of chapters. Ironically, it seems from reading Captive State that one of the victims of the corporate infiltration of the government is choice as well as voice. Whereas some resistance has come from consumer power--for, as Monbiot reminds us, the things that join us together are the things we are sold, he goes on to make the pertinent point that consumer power is diluted when choice is restricted to a local superstore or one hospital on the edge of town. Monbiot asks the right questions, but his answers remain elusive and caught up in a foggy democratic rhetoric that is less effective and inspiring than the tales of local activists clogging up the system that was supposed to work for them in the first place. Captive State is the first big ideas book of this decade. Let's hope it goes out of date before the next. --Fiona Buckland

Customer Reviews: Read 19 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

A book everyone in the country should read December 10, 2002
24 out of 24 found this review helpful

Essential reading for residents of the UK. Using real life examples of exploitation and deception, Monbiot unsparingly illustrates how the government is by-and-large more interested in serving its own needs and those of the corporations that support it than those of the British people and environment. The stories he uncovers are truly shocking and disturbing, and detail very worrying levels of corruption, apathy and corporate control in politics today.

5 out of 5 stars

Corruption Everywhere! April 20, 2003
Ms. J. E. C. Robinson (Surrey)
11 out of 11 found this review helpful

I knew that there were dodgy dealings going on behind closed doors but didn't realise the extent of it until reading this book. It's shocking to think that corporations can wave the pound notes at governments and local authorities and get their way, when what they want is not to benefit the people but their pockets.
I found the table in the middle of the book particularly amusing when it lists the fat cats and their "job descriptions" before the '97 general election and then their jobs afterwards. Total contradiction! A must read for anyone who wants to know what really goes on between the corporations and government!

5 out of 5 stars

They did it in broad daylight! March 8, 2006
Dr. Julienne B. Ford (Wales)
22 out of 23 found this review helpful

The Dome, the lottery, the Scottish Parliament, the Manchester tram scam, the destruction of the railways and London Underground: these are all scandals we know about and which make us think the lunatics are running the asylum. We feel bewildered disempowered, ripped off and plain scared for the future of our country and the world.

None of these episodes is covered in this book. Yet through its coverage of the Skye Bridge, the Coventry hospitals, the “regeneration” of Southampton, genetic engineering in agriculture and medicine, the takeover of our universities - and much, much more it explains everything about the decline in quality of life, accelerating gap between rich and poor, and the total destruction of anything remotely resembling “democracy” which is going on all around us while we sit there swigging Special Brew and watching reality tv.

If Monbiot never wrote another thing he would have entirely justified his existence with this book which is quite simply THE most important book on politics in Britain this century. In reading it you realise that you are not mad after all and neither are “they”!

Quick! We have only a few months to save the world. The single most useful thing each of us can do is to buy TWO COPIES of this book right now. Send one to your local MP with a note saying you are waiting for her/his response before casting another vote.

5 out of 5 stars Welcome to the 51st state!! February 7, 2003
J. Maher (Rochdale , Lancs, UK)
24 out of 27 found this review helpful

Welcome to the 51st state you have been successfully taken over!
This could quite easily have been the title of the book. The corporate takeover of our schools , police and hospitals.Just like America where corporations rule our so called political representatives have sold us out tho the big corporations!

This book is a must read for every voter, taxpayer or anyone interested in how our country is run. You have to read this - what is going on in our name - local democracy crushed in favour of central control even Stalin never managed that completely unlike successive British Governments obsessed with complete rule from Whitehall.
The most damming thing that Monbiot produces are the real life effects of the corporate takeover - the people of the Isle of Skye being charged extortionate ammounts to cross the Skye Bridge, market traders pushed out of town centres in favour of large monolitihic giants.
Monbiot explains that when Government is questioned about the PFI ( The expensive Private Finance Initative - i.e. where schools and hospitals are built by private companies and then leased back to the state for obscence ammounts of money!). And local authoritites and Government are locked in by law to paying these ammounts while the private companies themselves renegoiate loan deals with the banks. Making even more money!
The establishment when questioned by Monbiot hide behind the old addage of commerical confidentiality in other words embarrsement at being stiched up by the city boys , naviety or collusion.
While it may seem Monbiot may paint a bleak picture of the Corporate Takeover of this country he does point out what has and can be done to stop it and gives examples.
So come everyone this it not some leftie with an axe to grind this is something which has been taking place under our noses for years without the national media either not interested or turning a blind eye.
Monbiot deserves respect and the plaudits he has recieved for his perservsnce, research in the face of so much obstruction and having to piece together scraps of information.

5 out of 5 stars The Third Way - Selling Your Soul February 21, 2001
17 out of 20 found this review helpful

This is a brilliant, eye-opening book by one of the best political writers in the UK. George Monbiot manages to penetrate the lies of the spin doctors and media moguls to let us see what is really being done in our name. The extent to which British politicians have prostituted themselves to big business is breathtaking, and they have created a situation which now seriously threatens our democracy. This book is not only a great read though - it is inspirational and makes you want to actually do something about the corruption in our political system. Essential reading for those fighting globalisation and neo-liberalism!