"The book works best when you substitute the word 'economics' in its provocative subtitle for 'neoliberalism' — although the author dislikes the term, which he calls vague. It is really an account of how a group of rightwing economists persuaded policymakers, particularly in the governments of Thatcher in the UK and Ronald Reagan in the US, to adopt their ideas. He gives no evidence that these theories had an influence on general standards of behaviour. [...] Readers familiar with the topic will find little new. [...] Overall the book already feels dated. Most of the thinkers Aldred focuses on are dead and the economics profession is moving on. Politics has too: many date the end of the neoliberal era to the 2008 financial crisis, or the Brexit referendum and the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Economists are not in charge any more, if they ever were. Among academics, the pendulum is swinging back to those who define the discipline by subject matter rather than an assumption of rational self-interested agents. Ideas that were consigned to the margins are finding their way back into the mainstream. Aldred devotes little space to the flaws in recent trends, such as the increasing focus on data rather than models. Economics may redeem itself yet."