But he is also right when he adds: “my economic stories are going to be rewards in themselves because I have made them tastier than the usual by making them more varied in kind and more complex in flavour”. It reminded me a bit of A History of the World in 6 Glasses in style and aims, though with a different focus as Standage's is history and Chang's is economy. While I did find some of Chang’s opinions to be distinctly British — though born and raised in South Korea, Ha-Joon Chang attended university and now teaches in the UK — it was still easy to remind myself that this is a book of opinions as much as it is a book of fact. Chang dismisses alternative economic models – those based on commodity exports, or on services – rather quickly. En cada uno de sus libros, los mitos económicos ultraliberales quedan al descubierto, demostrado su falta de evidencia real e histórica.

The definitive, behind-the-scenes look at why Pokémon's evolution from a single Japanese video game to global powerhouse captured the world's attention, and how the "gotta catch 'em all" mentality of its fanbase shaped pop culture—and continues to do so today. His books include Economics: The User's Guide, Bad Samaritans and 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism, which was an international no. It doesn't necessarily translate to how food/ingredients shape the global economy but it tries to draw parallelisms into economic concepts. This book isn't about the economy of food production from planting to the market's shelf but about worldwide economics explained through food, a clever concept that makes economics accessible for the layperson. Chang does say upfront that this is what he’s going to do – that this isn’t a book about the economics of food per se, but a restatement of his core arguments, with culinary anecdotes functioning as treats to keep the reader interested.It drew stories and parallels between various food ingredients to, often seemingly random, economic concepts. Keeping my copy of this book as I definitely want to read it again, and it's hard to say much in the reveal without either giving it away or turning this review into something overly technical!

This is the same egomania that underlined Stalin and Mao’s collectivization drives that killed millions. Structuring the book as a series of menus, Chang uses histories behind familiar food items – where they come from, how they are cooked and consumed, what they mean to different cultures – to explore economic theory. A brilliant economics public science, there are many of these out there but the use of the dishes as a segue into each chapter is a wonderful idea that was well-executed here. Anyway, you won't only learn about economics, you'll get plenty of neat historical facts you didn't know about, too. Este libro es fascinante porque conjuga con eficacia la gastronomía, la historia , la geografía y la economía.Each chapter has a recipe as a header, not in full but as a list of ingredients that go into the recipe that showcases the food item used as an example to discuss the theme of the chapter. This book reminded me why Southeast Asian cuisine is the one ethnic food group I most want to try, and reassured me in my obstinately experimental tastes.