Ricardo’s Dream

Ricardo’s Dream: How Economists Forgot the Real World and Led Us Astray is published by Bristol University Press. Order the book from your local book shop or:

About the book

From the workings of financial markets to our response to the ecological crisis, economic theory shapes the world. But where do these ideas come from?

Ricardo’s Dream tells the fascinating story of David Ricardo, Adam Smith’s only real rival as the ‘founder of economics’: The wealthiest stock trader of his day, Ricardo introduced the study of abstract models to economics. He also developed the theory of trade that underpinned globalization and hides, behind its mathematical façade, a history of power, empire and slavery.

Brimming with fresh ideas and stories, Ricardo’s Dream shows how too many economists, from Ricardo’s day to our own, have turned away from observing the real world and led us astray.

In the media

“The book, Ricardo’s Dream, covers the life and work of David Ricardo, a pioneer of economic theory and the wealthiest stock trader of his day. It also re-examines Newton’s time as master of the mint at the Royal Mint, where the scientist wielded political influence and amassed vast personal wealth after leaving his academic position in Cambridge.” – The Guardian, Nov 2024

“Ricardo’s Dream by Nat Dyer — shows very clearly the monumental damage caused when policymakers fail to take into account the human cost of adherence to David Ricardo’s theory”, William Heath in a letter to the Financial Times, Nov 2024

“A truly fascinating work.” Alternatives Économiques (in French)

“Economics’ addiction to unreal theories [is] so entertainingly described and perceptively diagnosed in Ricardo’s Dream” – David Sloan Wilson in evonomics.

“This book is, indisputably, an essential read” – Ivan Radanović in the LSE Review of Books

“The book is always fascinating: a real page-turner of an economics text… Dyer is thorough, clear and easy” – David Wineberg on Medium.com (full text here)

“Exceptional… Highly enlightening, and highly recommended.” – Will Podmore in The Morning Star

‘How economics wrecked the world’ – an interview by Paul Rosenberg in Salon

‘What economists get wrong about tariff wars’ – by me in the Financial Times

… and for podcasts and videos see this page

Selected reviews

“I loved this book. Gobbled it up. If you want a sense of where economics might have gone wrong, and how it could right itself – this is an excellent primer.”
Ed Conway, Economics Editor at Sky News and author of Material World

“Ricardo’s Dream is a fascinating – and surprisingly gripping – exploration of how mainstream economists came to inhabit a world of models and formulae increasingly untethered from the real economy. Dyer shows that, in attempting to create clean and elegant mathematical models stripped of the messiness of politics, economists have helped to conceal how the economy really works – to the benefit of those at the top.”
Grace Blakeley, author of Vulture Capitalism

“The stockbroker David Ricardo laid the foundations of an economic pantheon that survives to this day. Unlike his contemporary Adam Smith, Ricardo ignored questions of morality, history and power. Nat Dyer systematically examines, surveys and excavates the flimsy foundations of today’s economic orthodoxy… His book is essential reading for the curious and a vital antidote for all students of economics.”
Ann Pettifor, Policy Research in Macroeconomics

“A fascinating investigation into the development of economic thought from David Ricardo’s era to the present day – and its impact on real lives and livelihoods. Wide-ranging and carefully researched, this book shows the temptations and dangers of assuming away too much of reality in the pursuit of elegant economic models. A heartfelt and reasoned call for a more human economics.”
Erica Thompson, author of Escape from Model Land

“Nat Dyer’s brilliant and erudite book shows the deep roots of David Ricardo’s economic theories… Like Sir Isaac Newton, Ricardo hoped to find immutable economic laws.  Instead, as Dyer so learnedly shows, much of Ricardo’s theory of international trade was based on an ideal, rather than on the way international trade actually works. This pioneering deep dive into Ricardo’s intellectual and social universe is a revelation for those interested in history, economics, science and their rich interaction at the dawn of the modern world.”
Jacob Soll, University of Southern California, author of Free Market: The History of an Idea

“A wonderful achievement bursting with humanity. Nat Dyer fills in the historical detail of what Ricardo left unsaid about the underpinnings of his abstract free market models. As important for how we study international economic affairs today as it is in reappraising nineteenth-century imperial trade.”
Matthew Watson, University of Warwick

“Dyer skilfully shows how Ricardo’s simple, incredibly influential models hid a history of conquest and exploitation spanning four continents — and how a commitment to models over evidence can hide similar misdeeds even today.”
Elizabeth Popp Berman, University of Michigan, author of Thinking Like an Economist

“Excellently researched and beautifully written, Ricardo’s Dream transformed my understanding of Isaac Newton’s engagement in global trade and British imperialism by highlighting the importance of Brazilian gold.”
Patricia Fara, University of Cambridge, author of Life After Gravity

“The book provides eye-opening revelations about Sir Isaac Newton’s connection with Brazilian slavery and gold guineas.”
Corinne Fowler, author of Our Island Stories: Country Walks Through Colonial Britain

“The high priests of economics thought they had created a science, when in fact they had created a religion. This important and lucid book skewers – in delightful detail – the false gods of the profession that has wreaked so much modern havoc around the globe.” Nicholas Shaxson, author of Treasure Islands

“Nat Dyer’s gripping, page-turning exposé of the Neverland of economic models, thriving at the crippling expense of the real world, is simply brilliant.”
Patrick Alley, author of Very Bad People and Terrible Humans

“Economics should be about the wellbeing of people and the integrity of the planet Earth. This brilliant book gets us closer to this end goal.”
Satish Kumar, author of Soil, Soul, Society

“An engaging critique of economics, which takes Ricardo’s personality and his abstract theories of trade and rent as founding models for the discipline. Lively and compelling, it calls for more grounded and inclusive approaches.”
Avner Offer, University of Oxford

“Ricardo’s Dream illustrates how the economic ideas that drive political policy are frequently little more than articles of faith.”
Tom Bergin, author of Free Lunch Thinking

“Like Robert Heilbroner in his The Worldly Philosophers, Dyer writes with a clarity that makes even the weightiest economic ideas feel approachable.”
Lars P. Syll, Professor of Social Studies, Malmö University

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