The Divide

As seen on Sky News All Out Politics, Kate Raworth, author of Doughnut Economics, says: "There is no understanding of global inequality without understanding its history. In The Divide, Jason Hickel brilliantly lays out layer by layer until you are left with outrage." The richest eight people control more wealth than the poorest half of the world combined. Today, 60 percent of the global population lives on less than $5 a day. Although global real GDP has nearly tripled since 1980, 1.1 billion people now live in poverty. For decades, we have been told a story: that development works, that poverty is a natural phenomenon, and that it will be eradicated by 2030 through aid. But just because it is a comforting narrative does not make it true. Poor countries are poor because they are inequitably integrated into the global economic system, and aid only helps to obscure this. Based on groundbreaking research and years of firsthand experience, The Divide traces the development of global inequality—from the expeditions of Christopher Columbus to the present—and offers insightful answers to some of humanity's greatest challenges. It is a provocative, urgent, and ultimately hopeful account of how the world works and how it can change for the better.