It is a provocative, urgent and ultimately uplifting account of how the world works, and how it can change for the better. 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. Poor countries are poor because they are integrated into the global economic system on unequal terms, and aid only helps to hide this.ĭrawing 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. 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 'This book will radically change the way you understand the workings of the global economic system. 'The Divide is an exceptional and essential book about the processes that produce and perpetuate impoverishment. But just because it is a comforting tale doesn't make it true. Though global real GDP has nearly tripled since 1980, 1.1 billion more people are now living in poverty.įor 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.

Today, 60 per cent of the world's population lives on less than $5 a day.

The richest eight people control more wealth than the poorest half of the world combined.

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 Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions by Jason Hickle. 'There's no understanding global inequality without understanding its history.

The divide jason hickel