There were a lot of emerging markets crises in the 1990s -- Mexico, Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea, Russia, Turkey, Peru, Argentina, Brazil. Clearly someone's to blame. But who?

The Chastening plunges into the fray, with a journalistic account of the crises and especially the IMF's role. The theme is "the IMF made mistakes" but it's not really an argument. This is reportage above all else -- so it's well-written, packed with anecdote, and fun to read, but short on analysis. In general the World Bank comes out the hero and the IMF and US Treasury -- driven by market ideology -- the villians.