A groundbreaking new examination of global inequality, and how to fix it
Jason Hickel is an economic anthropologist, Fulbright Scholar and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is originally from Eswatini (Swaziland) and spent a number of years with migrant workers in South Africa, writing about exploitation and political resistance in the wake of apartheid. He has authored three books, including most recently The Divide- A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions. He writes regularly for the Guardian, Al Jazeera and Foreign Policy, serves as an advisor for the Green New Deal for Europe and sits on the Lancet Commission for Reparations and Redistributive Justice. He lives in London.
There’s no understanding global inequality without understanding
its history. In The Divide, Jason Hickel brilliantly lays it out,
layer upon layer, until you are left reeling with the outrage of it
all.
*Kate Raworth, author of Doughnut Economics*
In this iconoclastic book, Jason Hickel shakes up the prevailing
paradigm of "development" at its root. He not only exposes the
fatal flaws in the standard model of development but also shows how
the "development aid" given to the poor countries in order to
promote that erroneous model is vastly outweighed by the resource
transferred to the rich countries through an unfair global economic
system. Many of the proposals that Hickel makes for institutional
reform and intellectual re-framing may sound "mad", as he himself
acknowledges, but history has taught us that mad ideas have the
habit of becoming respectable over time. This book will radically
change the way in which you understand the workings of the global
economic system and the challenges faced by poor countries trying
to advance within it.
*Ha-Joon Chang, University of Cambridge, author of 23 Things They
Don't Tell You About Capitalism and Economics: The User's
Guide*
This is a book that if our world is to have any chance of meeting
the challenges of the 21st century, people need to read. It
challenges so much received wisdom via a well-argued, flowing prose
that guides you through economic history, international trade,
colonialism, politics and power, and the limits to growth debate.
In setting out the reality of global inequality and its tangled
roots, Hickel, matador-like, destroys the statistical pivots used
by official agencies and unpicks their portrayal of an optimistic
account of the state of global poverty and inequality.
*Open Democracy*
With passion and panache, Jason Hickel tells a very different story
of why poverty exists, what progress is, and who we are. The Divide
is myth busting at its best. The West has controlled the rest
through colonization, coups, trade and debt. Poor countries are
made poor by this; but a dramatic change is coming.
*Danny Dorling, author of Inequality and the 1%*
Hickel masterfully weaves together the most radical currents in
political and economic thought to plot the course of global
development… I appreciated his ability to translate such a
disorienting amount of complex information into a clear, compelling
narrative. Hickel is one of the few academics taking
responsibilities as a public intellectual seriously, willing to ask
difficult questions that challenge and inform our political
discourse.
*Bright Green*
Jason Hickel tears apart the destructive myths surrounding global
inequality. He shows that colonialism has not disappeared, only
changed form. Full of explosive information and devastating
argument, The Divide is essential reading.
*Raoul Martinez, author of Creating Freedom*
We all like to think of aid and development as benign in a world
full of inequality and violence. Jason Hickel rightly challenges
this dangerous myth with a book that crackles with facts,
indignation and heart. Why hasn't global poverty and hunger really
declined in the last decades? A combination of NGO and government
obfuscation, denial and wishful thinking is not helping the world's
most vulnerable but marking them as numbers. Journalists, aid
workers and anybody who has ever given aid (i.e. nearly everybody)
should read this book to understand why we all have a
responsibility to better serve our fellow human beings. Hickel
should be applauded.
*Antony Loewenstein, author of Disaster Capitalism*
The Divide should be on the curriculum of every undergraduate
course in international development and international relations. It
explains better than most how poor countries are impoverished by
rich country policies.
*Ann Pettifor, author of The Production of Money*
The Divide is an exceptional, necessary and essential book about
the processes that produce and perpetuate impoverishment. Jason
Hickel provides here not only a devastating critique of
‘development’ and the aid industry, but also one of the best
explanations of how it all works. Written in a captivating and easy
to read style, this book must become the standard text for everyone
studying, working or interested in development.
*Firoze Manji, author of African Awakening: The Emerging
Revolutions*
This is a timely book that cuts to the heart of the problem of
global inequality. Jason Hickel lays down a challenge to policy
makers everywhere which must not be ignored. Poor countries are
poor because the system isn’t working. It’s an issue of power and a
political problem requiring political solutions – and these
solutions must be bold and radical.
*Jonathan Bartley, Co-Leader of the Green Party*
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