Includes bibliographical references (p.223-266) and index.

Prologue : Mozambiques economic miracle : how to escape poverty -- 1. The Lexus and the olive tree revisited : myths and facts about globalization -- 2. The double life of Daniel Defoe : how did the rich countries become rich? -- 3. My six-year-old son should get a job : is free trade always the answer? -- 4. The Finn and the elephant : should we regulate foreign investment? -- 5. Man exploits man : private enterprise good, public enterprise bad? -- 6. Windows 98 in 1997 : is it wrong to borrow ideas? -- 7. Mission impossible? : can financial prudence go too far? -- 8. Zaire vs Indonesia : should we turn our backs on corrupt and undemocratic countries? -- 9. Lazy Japanese and thieving Germans : are some cultures incapable of economic development? -- Epilogue : Sao Paulo, October 2037 : can things get better?

Contrarian economist Chang blasts holes in the "World Is Flat" theories 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, todays economic superpowers--from the United States to Britain to his native South Korea--all attained prosperity by protectionism and government intervention in industry. We in the wealthy nations have conveniently forgotten this fact, telling ourselves a fairy tale about the magic of free trade and forcing policies that suit ourselves on the developing world. Unlike typical economists who construct models of how economies are supposed to behave, Chang examines the past: what has actually happened. He calls on America to return to its abandoned role, embodied in programs like the Marshall Plan, to offer a helping hand, instead of a closed fist, to countries struggling to follow in our footsteps.--From publisher description.