This Decade’s Must-Read Is a 1939 Guide to Waging Economic War

Inside a locked room at the UK’s National Archives, I am alone with a battered, red-bound book carrying a warning on its cover: “TO BE KEPT UNDER LOCK AND KEY.” An oversized security camera on the ceiling and partially opaque internal windows make it feel as if others can see me better than I can see them. A librarian has ushered me into this high-security invigilation room to view the 1939 edition of The Handbook of Economic Warfare, not because the book is still top secret but because it is so popular that staff don’t want me wandering off ...