Childhood Under Siege: How Big Business Targets Children - Hardcover

Bakan, Joel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670069078 ISBN 13: 9780670069071

Publisher: Allen Lane, 2011

Synopsis

 

From the writer of the hit film and international bestselling book The Corporation comes a shocking venture behind the scenes of the widespread manipulation of children by profit-seeking corporations—and of society’s failure to protect them.

Childhood Under Seige reveals big business’s discovery of a new resource to be mined for profit—our children. A journey through a world of unabashed exploitation, clued-out parents, and governments that look the other way, it tells the chilling and at times darkly humorous story of business’s plans to turn kids into obsessive and narcissistic mini-consumers, media addicts, cheap and pliable workers, and chemical industry guinea pigs. Not to mention pharmaceutical pill poppers—psychotropic drug consumption by children has increased fivefold since 1980.

It’s a winner-takes-all battle for children’s hearts, minds and bodies as corporations pump billions into rendering parents and governments powerless to protect children from their calculated commercial assault and its disturbing toll on their health and well-being.

About this title

About the Author

 

JOEL BAKAN is an internationally recognized and award-winning scholar and teacher who has worked on landmark legal cases and government policies. His bestselling book The Corporation was made into an award-winning documentary. He lives in Vancouver.

Review

"The assault on childhood in our corporate-dominated and profit-driven society, painfully dissected in this penetrating study, is a tragedy not only for the immediate victims but for hopes for a better future. It can be resisted, as Joel Bakan discusses. And it is urgent not to delay" -- Noam Chomsky "Incredibly well researched and notated... Bakan is most powerful when writing about the sinister relationship between multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical companies and the medical profession... It is that sneakiness of corporations that is the most shocking element to Childhood Under Siege - we are allowing our kids to be abused right under our noses, and we don't even know it" Independent on Sunday "A truly terrifying book, one that's meticulously researched, clearly written and forcefully argued" Big Issue

About this edition

• Publisher: Allen Lane
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0670069078
• ISBN 13: 9780670069071
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288