Life Inc: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take it Back - Softcover

Rushkoff, Douglas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0224082035 ISBN 13: 9780224082037

Publisher: Bodley Head, 2009

Synopsis

* 'Something has gone terribly wrong. We are deep in the thrall of a system that no one really likes, no one remembers asking for, yet no one can escape. It just is. And the minute it seems as if we can put our finger on what's happening to us or how it came to be this way, the insight disappears, drowned out by the more immediately pressing demands by everyone and everything on our attention. What did they just say? My phone is vibrating'.

* In Life Inc Douglas Rushkoff offers a timely, provocative and urgent look at the origins and nature of the modern corporate system, a world in which everything can be commodified, a closed system that conquers not through exclusion but total inclusion. Under current conditions market forces have achieved a nightmarish triumph - everything, including dissidence, is assimilated.

* Life Inc tells the story of how we got here and, more importantly, how this value system now perpetuates itself. Rushkoff reveals the process through which media conglomerates conceive and assimilate everything from teen icons to online communities, and replace anything resembling civic engagement with yet another consumer choice. His goal is nothing less than to give us the view from outside of the hermetically sealed shopping mall in which we spend our lives.

About this title

Review:

"Fascinating . . . powerful writing . . . a tour de force survey of the economic history of the modern world . . . [an] enlightening and consciousness-raising experience."-"The Miami Herald" "This is a provocative and controversial look at the dark side of corporatist effects on our economy. . . . Whether or not you agree with Douglas Rushkoff, you will find that this book challenges some of our basic assumptions about how our economy works."-Walter Isaacson "There are few more important subjects in the West today than the corporatization of public and personal space, and few writers as well suited to the subject as the always insightful and provocative Doug Rushkoff. "Life Inc" is a terrific contribution to an urgent debate."-Naomi Wolf, author of "Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries" "A visionary work powered by moral passion and resting on solid historical research."-B

Book Description:

A timely, provocative and urgent look at the origins and nature of the modern corporate system, a world in which everything can be commodified, a closed system that conquers not through exclusion but total inclusion.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bodley Head
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0224082035
• ISBN 13: 9780224082037
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304