Bad Samaritans will be a breakout trade book for a fresh new voice in the world of economics, Ha-Joon Chang. With irreverent wit, an engaging personal style, and a keen grasp of history, Chang blasts holes in the World Is Flat orthodoxy of Thomas Friedman and others 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 U.S. to Britain to his native Korea all attained prosperity by shameless protectionism and government intervention in industry, a fact conveniently forgotten now that they want to compete in foreign markets. Changs cage-rattling, contrarian history of global capital will appeal to the same readers who made bestsellers of No Logo and Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: its Freakonomics goes to Davos.