Rating: 
Summary: A complicated topic made simple
Review: Roberts puts things in a language that all can understand. Simply said this book is a must read. Roberts provides in depth examples making it not only easy to follow but also easy understand. Roberts makes the basic foundation of economics simple. It's a great and easy read! A must have!
Rating:
Summary: Persuasive Argument for Free Trade
Review: Russell Roberts aims to persuade the intelligent layman that the stuff of wealth is goods and services (not money or jobs) and that the way to create wealth is through specialization and trade, which he calls the "roundabout way to wealth." The book is better than a novel. The author creates a dialogue between the late economist David Ricardo and fictional businessman Ed Johnson. It's easy to imagine that Ricardo represents Roberts as professor and Johnson represents every student who ever raised a challenging question in his class. One can learn a lot about international trade from this dialectic approach.
The author uses some numbers and case studies to illustrate what happens when trade is free and when it is not. The "rigor" is there even if the elaborate geometry and mathematics usually found in economics textbooks are not. Like most economists, Roberts makes the case for free trade in terms of efficiency. Ultimately though, his message becomes a moral one and a challenge. "The real choice" declares David Ricardo (Russell Roberts), "is between a dynamic world and a static world---a world of encouraging people to dream and acquire the skills to make those dreams come true and a world of encouraging people to be content with what they have and to dream less." The Choice is about as good in spirit and persuasiveness as Frederic Bastiat's Economic Sophisms.
Rating:
Summary: A complicated topic made simple
Review: This book clearly states the case for free trade without falling back on dense economic theory and technical jargon. Especially with the protests and controversy surrounding globalization and trade today, it is more important than ever for people to understand that free trade makes us all better off. In fact, there is no better way to improve the lot of two countries (and their overall welfare) that to reduce trade barriers between them and allow each to concentrate more energy and resources on their comparative strengths. The Choice delivers this message clearly and articulately in the context of a fun and simple story that even the most protectionist leaning person would have difficulty refuting.
Rating:
Summary: Insight without economic jargon
Review: This book clearly states the case for free trade without falling back on dense economic theory and technical jargon. Especially with the protests and controversy surrounding globalization and trade today, it is more important than ever for people to understand that free trade makes us all better off. In fact, there is no better way to improve the lot of two countries (and their overall welfare) that to reduce trade barriers between them and allow each to concentrate more energy and resources on their comparative strengths. The Choice delivers this message clearly and articulately in the context of a fun and simple story that even the most protectionist leaning person would have difficulty refuting.
Rating: 
Summary: An Entertaining Defense of Free Trade
Review: This book is, as the title suggests, an allegory with the notion of free trade at its center. It also not-so-subtly introduces the lay reader, for whom this book was written, to the arguments supporting free trade. It is written in the style of It's A Wonderful Life, in that the main character, resembling the American Everyman in his doubts about the merits of free trade, wishes that things could have been different. He is led on a journey of what might have been. Roberts masterfully mixes in macroeconomic and international economic theory in the process, allowing the reader to make their own decisions on the merits of free trade, rather than simply being cowed by the picture he paints of a protectionist United States. For those who are familiar with both macroeconomic and international economic theory, this book won't open your eyes. It does, however, provide a framework for explaining the merits of free trade to others. For those unfamiliar with economic theory, however, it is probably the most painless and enjoyable ways to become familiar with the territory.
Rating:
Summary: An Entertaining Defense of Free Trade
Review: This book is, as the title suggests, an allegory with the notion of free trade at its center. It also not-so-subtly introduces the lay reader, for whom this book was written, to the arguments supporting free trade. It is written in the style of It's A Wonderful Life, in that the main character, resembling the American Everyman in his doubts about the merits of free trade, wishes that things could have been different. He is led on a journey of what might have been. Roberts masterfully mixes in macroeconomic and international economic theory in the process, allowing the reader to make their own decisions on the merits of free trade, rather than simply being cowed by the picture he paints of a protectionist United States. For those who are familiar with both macroeconomic and international economic theory, this book won't open your eyes. It does, however, provide a framework for explaining the merits of free trade to others. For those unfamiliar with economic theory, however, it is probably the most painless and enjoyable ways to become familiar with the territory.
Rating: 
Summary: The Choice?
Review: This is a decent book outlining the basic tenets of libertarian philopshy on how things work in the real world. My problem with the book is it never deals with the real issues of the left with free trade that is the doctrine being pushed on Thrid World countries. Then the arguments become absurd. Unions have become more militant in the US because of their lack of power and Mexican women are happy to work 80 hours per week and love taking birth controll pills evry morning as prerequsit to employment (Roberts dosent say this but these are the conditions under whihc many people work in free trade zones. So if he claims Mexicans love the jobs that are brought through NAFTA and dont want clean drinking water or clean air then they must love these conitions). And i love this argument: America had sweathops too. But the book forgets to mention that free trade did not improve the conditions of wrokers in this country, collective actions by the workers did. Also a little history fact: No country has ever industriliazed through free trade and that is the truth no matter what your economics books tell you. However, this does not delegitimize the free trade doctorine but it is certainly something that needs to be talked about. Read Globalization and Its Discontents by Stieglitz instead.
Rating:
Summary: Economic Solace
Review: This is a wonderful story for all in need of a little economic solace. Russ Roberts (who is wonderful in person) illustrates a world of free trade in a charismatic fictional story. Reminiscent of It's A Wonderful Life, the "angle" David Ricardo teaches an american tv manufacturer why free trade is so important even if it does destroy his business, so convincing is Roberts that I teared up on occasion and bought a copy for everyone I knew. The Choice is a book too compelling for anyone with any kind of education not to believe in the power of the Market.
Rating:
Summary: A genuine joy to read!
Review: With THE CHOICE, Russell Roberts has written the 20th-century's finest, most eloquent, most unique, most accessible, and deepest defense of free trade. Even though I'm trained as an economist, and despite having taught international trade for many years, I learned much when I read this 104-page work. For example, never have I read an explanation of the optimal tariff (and of its limitations) that is as clear as that which is presented in THE CHOICE. But the most remarkable trait of THE CHOICE is its humanity -- its successful effort to destroy the myth that free trade benefits only the few and makes life precarious for the many. In every sense, this work is superb.
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