I recently found a review of Ha-Joon Chang's book Kicking Away the Ladder on one of my fave websites, EH.net. In the review the author (Douglas Irwin) finds Chang's argument that barriers to free trade are required for a country to develop unconvincing. Chang fails to persuade Irwin because he does not engage with the existing economic history literature on the very subject (economic policy and its effects on development) that he is discussing.
econ, philosophy and some forays into business and culture