The Great Escape by Angus Deaton Summary
Overview of The Great Escape
Angus Deaton's masterpiece reveals how humanity escaped poverty and disease, while inequality persists. Nobel laureate Paul Collier calls it "magnificent" for exposing aid's paradoxical harm. What if the solutions to global poverty are completely counterintuitive to what we've been told?
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Key takeaways
The Unprecedented Liberation from Poverty and Death
Imagine a world where half your children die before age five and your life expectancy barely reaches 30 years. This wasn't some distant dystopia - it was humanity's reality for millennia. Yet in just 250 years, we've witnessed what Nobel Prize-winning economist Angus Deaton calls "The Great Escape" - an extraordinary liberation from destitution and premature death that has transformed human existence. This remarkable journey began with the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment, creating intellectual conditions for both health and economic breakthroughs. Early medical innovations like smallpox inoculation in 1721 initially benefited only the wealthy, but gradually expanded to entire populations - establishing a pattern where progress creates inequality before eventually becoming widely available. For most of human history, life was indeed nasty, brutish, and short. The Industrial Revolution accelerated material progress but created new health challenges as crowded cities became perfect breeding grounds for disease. Life expectancy in urban areas actually fell below rural levels, explaining why overall health improved so slowly before 1850. The scientific breakthrough came with John Snow's landmark 1854 cholera study in London, which demonstrated how contaminated water spread disease. This work, alongside Koch and Pasteur's research, established the germ theory of disease despite fierce resistance from those who believed "bad air" caused illness. This revolution required both technological advances like improved microscopes and political will - newly enfranchised working men demanded the clean water infrastructure that would eventually save millions of lives.
The Global Health Transformation
America's Material Transformation and Growing Inequality
The Global Great Escape: Uneven Progress
The Aid Illusion and Better Paths Forward
The Meaning of Progress
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"It is great for me to learn something from the book without reading it."
"The themed book list podcasts help me connect ideas across authors—like a guided audio journey."
"Makes me feel smarter every time before going to work"
From Columbia University alumni built in San Francisco
"Instead of endless scrolling, I just hit play on BeFreed. It saves me so much time."
"I never knew where to start with nonfiction—BeFreed’s book lists turned into podcasts gave me a clear path."
"Perfect balance between learning and entertainment. Finished ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’ on my commute this week."
"Crazy how much I learned while walking the dog. BeFreed = small habits → big gains."
"Reading used to feel like a chore. Now it’s just part of my lifestyle."
"Feels effortless compared to reading. I’ve finished 6 books this month already."
"BeFreed turned my guilty doomscrolling into something that feels productive and inspiring."
"BeFreed turned my commute into learning time. 20-min podcasts are perfect for finishing books I never had time for."
"BeFreed replaced my podcast queue. Imagine Spotify for books — that’s it. 🙌"
"It is great for me to learn something from the book without reading it."
"The themed book list podcasts help me connect ideas across authors—like a guided audio journey."
"Makes me feel smarter every time before going to work"
"Instead of endless scrolling, I just hit play on BeFreed. It saves me so much time."
"I never knew where to start with nonfiction—BeFreed’s book lists turned into podcasts gave me a clear path."
"Perfect balance between learning and entertainment. Finished ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’ on my commute this week."
"Crazy how much I learned while walking the dog. BeFreed = small habits → big gains."
"Reading used to feel like a chore. Now it’s just part of my lifestyle."
"Feels effortless compared to reading. I’ve finished 6 books this month already."
"BeFreed turned my guilty doomscrolling into something that feels productive and inspiring."
"BeFreed turned my commute into learning time. 20-min podcasts are perfect for finishing books I never had time for."
"BeFreed replaced my podcast queue. Imagine Spotify for books — that’s it. 🙌"
"It is great for me to learn something from the book without reading it."
"The themed book list podcasts help me connect ideas across authors—like a guided audio journey."
"Makes me feel smarter every time before going to work"
"Instead of endless scrolling, I just hit play on BeFreed. It saves me so much time."
"I never knew where to start with nonfiction—BeFreed’s book lists turned into podcasts gave me a clear path."
"Perfect balance between learning and entertainment. Finished ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’ on my commute this week."
"Crazy how much I learned while walking the dog. BeFreed = small habits → big gains."
"Reading used to feel like a chore. Now it’s just part of my lifestyle."
"Feels effortless compared to reading. I’ve finished 6 books this month already."
"BeFreed turned my guilty doomscrolling into something that feels productive and inspiring."
"BeFreed turned my commute into learning time. 20-min podcasts are perfect for finishing books I never had time for."
"BeFreed replaced my podcast queue. Imagine Spotify for books — that’s it. 🙌"
"It is great for me to learn something from the book without reading it."
"The themed book list podcasts help me connect ideas across authors—like a guided audio journey."
"Makes me feel smarter every time before going to work"
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