A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions

The Divide

A groundbreaking new examination of global inequality, and how to fix it

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.

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.

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

The Divide provides an evolutionary leap in our understanding of inequality and poverty. It should be required reading for anyone hoping to realise a better world.

For years now, we have all been sold a false story about international development. In this broad, compelling book, Dr Hickel deconstructs every false assumption, misleading statistic and overblown claim to expose a sector in crisis. If international development charities and institutions want to turn the ship around, they need to read this book.

Jason Hickel offers a compelling analysis of economic inequality in our world today. He takes apart distorted statistics used by institutions like the UN and mega-philanthropists like Bill Gates, who want to pretend that poverty is being addressed. Hickel explains how current models of Western development and philanthropy have actually made the problem worse, as if they were designed explicitly to support entrenched structures of power and privilege. The book is ultimately an outcry for a new politics based on empathy and shared responsibility.

Daniel Pinchbeck, author of How Soon is Now?

Jason Hickel's bold book is full of stark facts and assumption-busting pronouncements.

Well-written, accessible and thoroughly referenced. The Divide is a timely reminder of the pain, misery and suffering forced on so many worldwide in the name of ‘development’ and of the need to constantly rekindle our anger and passion for what is THE key story in today’s world. As an introduction to the debate on international development and inequality, it is hard to better Hickel. Without doubt, a ‘must read’.

A radical and original approach… a well-argued and bracing alternative account of world development and sustainability.

The Divide is well researched, very readable and highly recommended, though it should make uncomfortable reading for many of us.

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 
 
· The richest eight people control more wealth than the poorest half of the world combined. 
· Today, 60 per cent of the world's population lives on less than $5 a day. 
· Though global real GDP has nearly tripled since 1980, 1.1 billion more people are now living in poverty. 
 
For decades we have been told a story: that development is working, that poverty is a natural phenomenon and will be eradicated through aid by 2030. But just because it is a comforting tale doesn't make it true. Poor countries are poor because they are integrated into the global economic system on unequal terms, and aid only helps to hide this. 
 
Drawing on pioneering research and years of first-hand experience, The Divide tracks the evolution of global inequality - from the expeditions of Christopher Columbus to the present day - offering revelatory answers to some of humanity's greatest problems. It is a provocative, urgent and ultimately uplifting account of how the world works, and how it can change for the better.

Jason Hickel

Jason is able to personalise the global and swarm the mind with ideas ... Heed his beautifully rendered warning.

A powerfully disruptive book for disrupted times. Jason Hickel takes all we've been been told about growth and development and turns it inside out, offering instead a radically possible vision of a post-growth future. If you're looking for transformative ideas, this book is for you.

Kate Raworth, economist and author of Doughnut Economics

A masterpiece pulling together the ecological disaster wake-up call from The Uninhabitable Earth, the economic enlightenment from Piketty's Capital, and the colonial history from Jason's own The Divide. Just ace.

Eye-opening and passionate, Jason Hickel shows how the insatiable drive to increase GDP has caused the ecological crisis, reveals the historical and colonial roots of capitalism and argues that an ecologically sensitive economic based on 'degrowth' is essential for us to flourish.

A masterpiece... Less is More covers centuries and continents, spans academic disciplines, and connects contemporary and ancient events in a way which cannot be put down until it's finished. So much needs to change; although beginning that change might require nothing more than asking the right question.

Danny Dorling, Professor of Geography, University of Oxford

This is a book we have all been waiting for. Jason Hickel dispels ecomodernist fantasies of 'green growth'. Only degrowth can avoid climate breakdown. The facts are indisputable and they are in this book.

Giorgos Kallis, Professor of Ecological Economics and author of Degrowth

Jason Hickel shows that recovering the commons and decolonizing nature, cultures, and humanity are necessary conditions for hope of a common future in our common home. By extracting less we leave more for other species, other people and future generations, thus creating well-being for all. In an ecologically interconnected world, less is more.

Vandana Shiva, philosopher of physics and author of Making Peace with the Earth

Jason Hickel takes us on a profound journey through the last 500 years of capitalism and into the current crisis of ecological collapse. He lays out how we can transition to a post-capitalist economy, but also reminds us that there are other ways of knowing and being that hold the secret to a better world. Less is More is required reading for anyone interested in what it means to live in the Anthropocene, and what we can do about it.

This riveting offering explores a world that has finally woken up to the reality of climate change and ecological collapse. Arguing that a change of thinking is desperately needed, he charts a path to a post-capitalist world and an economy that is more just, caring and fun.

A restorative and invigorating read for troubled times, Hickel inspires hope that there is in fact a different way to approach life and society. The global pandemic has made us realise we don't need to go back to the way it was, and this book offers up a vision of the future that we should aspire to. A must read for anyone sick of the egregious ills of the present day.

Hickel's book is accessible and engagingly well written, with a good mix of anecdote, facts and argument

A clear and compelling case for a post-growth economy.

A marvel of just under 300 pages in which, with undeniable literary talent, the author reviews the history of the last six centuries and how capitalism has always been sustained in search of an "external something" that would allow it to continue its expansion and accumulation.

Hickel ... succeeds in outlining a fresh history of the epic struggle between capital and the commons ... A foreword by Extinction Rebellion, and a creditable argument linking the politics of degrowth to de-colonisation, imply a revolutionary moment must come, and soon.

Jason Hickel argues shrinking economies is the way to avert climate catastrophe ... it's certainly persuasive.

How Degrowth Will Save the World

'A powerfully disruptive book for disrupted times ... If you're looking for transformative ideas, this book is for you.' KATE RAWORTH, economist and author of Doughnut Economics 
 
A Financial Times Book of the Year 
______________________________________ 
Our planet is in trouble. But how can we reverse the current crisis and create a sustainable future? The answer is: DEGROWTH. 
 
Less is More is the wake-up call we need. By shining a light on ecological breakdown and the system that's causing it, Hickel shows how we can bring our economy back into balance with the living world and build a thriving society for all. This is our chance to change course, but we must act now. 
______________________________________ 
'A masterpiece... Less is More covers centuries and continents, spans academic disciplines, and connects contemporary and ancient events in a way which cannot be put down until it's finished.' DANNY DORLING, Professor of Geography, University of Oxford 
 
'Jason is able to personalise the global and swarm the mind in the way that insects used to in abundance but soon shan't unless we are able to heed his beautifully rendered warning.' RUSSELL BRAND 
 
'Jason Hickel shows that recovering the commons and decolonizing nature, cultures, and humanity are necessary conditions for hope of a common future in our common home.' VANDANA SHIVA, author of Making Peace With the Earth 
 
'This is a book we have all been waiting for. Jason Hickel dispels ecomodernist fantasies of "green growth". Only degrowth can avoid climate breakdown. The facts are indisputable and they are in this book.' GIORGIS KALLIS, author of Degrowth 
 
'Capitalism has robbed us of our ability to even imagine something different; Less is More gives us the ability to not only dream of another world, but also the tools by which we can make that vision real.' ASAD REHMAN, director of War on Want 
 
'One of the most important books I have read ... does something extremely rare: it outlines a clear path to a sustainable future for all.' RAOUL MARTINEZ, author of Creating Freedom 
 
'Jason Hickel takes us on a profound journey through the last 500 years of capitalism and into the current crisis of ecological collapse. Less is More is required reading for anyone interested in what it means to live in the Anthropocene, and what we can do about it.' ALNOOR LADHA, co-founder of The Rules 
 
'Excellent analysis...This book explores not only the systemic flaws but the deeply cultural beliefs that need to be uprooted and replaced.' ADELE WALTON

Jason Hickel

Praise for Less is More

Jason is able to personalise the global and swarm the mind with ideas ... Heed his beautifully rendered warning.

A powerfully disruptive book for disrupted times. Jason Hickel takes all we've been been told about growth and development and turns it inside out, offering instead a radically possible vision of a post-growt ...

A masterpiece pulling together the ecological disaster wake-up call from The Uninhabitable Earth, the economic enlightenment from Piketty's Capital, and the colonial history from Jason's own The ...

Jason is able to personalise the global and swarm the mind with ideas ... Heed his beautifully rendered warning.

A powerfully disruptive book for disrupted times. Jason Hickel takes all we've been been told about growth and development and turns it inside out, offering instead a radically possible vision of a post-growt ...

A masterpiece pulling together the ecological disaster wake-up call from The Uninhabitable Earth, the economic enlightenment from Piketty's Capital, and the colonial history from Jason's own The ...

Jason is able to personalise the global and swarm the mind with ideas ... Heed his beautifully rendered warning.

A powerfully disruptive book for disrupted times. Jason Hickel takes all we've been been told about growth and development and turns it inside out, offering instead a radically possible vision of a post-growt ...

A masterpiece pulling together the ecological disaster wake-up call from The Uninhabitable Earth, the economic enlightenment from Piketty's Capital, and the colonial history from Jason's own The ...

Books by Jason Hickel

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