This book should therefore be welcomed on two grounds. First, it represents a timely and careful analysis of Burmese economic development since the 1950s. Second, it is based on the work of a distinguished group of expatriate economists who were born and educated in Burma, and who all studied at the University of Rangoon before going on to pursue graduate studies in the UK and the USA. All have made their careers abroad since the 1960s, but they have continued to follow events in their homeland with both concern and compassion. It is hardly surprising that much of the book is critical in tone; the story the authors tell is one of shameful neglect, and of a stubborn pursuit of policies which have had a devastating effect on both the export sector and the domestic economy.