Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism

With irreverent wit, an engagingly personal style, and a battery of real-life examples, Ha-Joon Chang blasts holes in the “World Is Flat” orthodoxy of Thomas Friedman and other neo-liberal economists who argue that only unfettered capitalism and wide-open international trade can lift struggling nations out of poverty. On the contrary, Chang shows, today's economic superpowers-from the United States to Britain to his native South Korea-all attained prosperity by shameless protectionism and g...