Grossman’s book, as the subtitle indicates, examines nine economic “disasters” and draws lessons from them. Wrong is a clearly written work, with none of the jargon that sometimes afflicts economic history. Designed for a broad audience, the work has neither graphs nor tables, and its explanations of difficult concepts are lucid. The book emphasizes a common thread that brings together these case studies: “The main culprits were policy makers who were guided by ideology rather than economics” (xxi). However, Grossman’s approach, which emphasizes certainties rather than debate, does not always prove persuasive.
The emphasis on the dangers of ideology provides valuable insights into several of the episodes that Grossman studies. In his discussion of the British response to the Irish famine of the mid-1840s, Grossman aptly condemns the actions of the Whig government, led by Lord John Russell. The Whigs, who were committed to laissez-faire economics, cut back on relief...