Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism

Princeton University Press, March 2020
By Anne Case, the Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, Emeritus, and Angus Deaton, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of International Affairs, Emeritus, and professor of economics and international affairs, emeritus, both in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs

book cover
Image courtesy of the publisher

In the past two decades, deaths of despair from suicide, drug overdose and alcoholism have risen dramatically, now claiming hundreds of thousands of American lives each year — and they’re still rising. Anne Case and Angus Deaton, known for first sounding the alarm about deaths of despair, explain the overwhelming surge in these deaths and shed light on the social and economic forces that are making life harder for the working class. They demonstrate why, for those who used to prosper in America, capitalism is no longer delivering.