Book Report: Robert W. Fogel, Escape from Hunger and Premature Death

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Economic Book Report: Robert W. Fogel, The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death, 1700-2100: Europe, America, and the Third World.
Robert W. Fogel’s book, The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death, 1700-2100: Europe, America, and the Third World, provides an analysis of the economic transitions witnessed between 18th and the 21ist century. The author highlights some of the challenges facing various economies around the world across the period and the strategies employed to address the perceived deterrents to sustainable economic growth and development. Besides providing an overview of the underlying factors responsible for overcoming the challenges facing economic growth over the stated period, the author also provides recommendations for the future. Robert Fogel takes a holistic approach in providing a chronological account of economic development among the developed, developing, and Third World countries. However, the author emphasizes on the health and well-being of the populace as being the most critical factors in the improvement of the outlined economies. He accomplishes the said objective by revisiting some of the crisis faced during the early development of the economies and identifying the approach taken to address the challenges for improved economic growth. The book report thus offers to provide a comprehensive analysis of Fogel’s perspective and the approach taken to highlight the key elements to consider for sustainable economic growth and development in the global community.
The growth and development of the world’s economy are dependent on a wide range of factors, which play a significant role in the collective productivity of the globe. The social, political, cultural, as well as economic aspects of the global community are integral to the sustainable growth of the economy. The social demographic factors of the world’s population, for instance, are a key determinant of whether or not the desired economic outcomes can materialize. The health and well-being of people reflect positively on the economic performance of a country and the world at large. Shared interest and concern on health improvement at the global level accounts for the significant improvement in the reduction of high mortality rates characterizing the early 18th century. The globalized concern for the health and well-being of the global community further contribute to the recorded increments in life expectancy among different economies around the world. A historical account of the underlying factors behind the positive transitions serves to create an informed understanding of their significance towards the achievement of sustainable growth and development of the economy. It is important to highlight the author’s theme upon which he argues his claims through five informative and elaborate chapters developed for the easier understanding of the concept for readers across the wide range of professions. Fogel coins the phrase “techno-physio evolution” to summarize the two most crucial and often overlooked factors responsible for sustainable economic growth CITATION Fog04 \l 1033 (Fogel). The author breaks down the influence and effects of the two critical factors in five chapters as he utilizes various writing aids such as charts and reviewing of secondary sources to support his arguments. A summary analysis of the text’s contents provides an excellent opportunity for creating a verdict on whether or not the author’s thematic statement holds ground in the world of economics.
* The 19th Century Changes in the Economy and the Underlying factors
In the first chapter, for instance, Fogel puts forth the progress made in productive technology coupled with improvement in the health of human beings as the underlying factors for increased life expectancies in different economies around the world over the past 300 years. The author recognizes that the 20th century accounts for remarkable changes in life expectancy with record increments in the United States and other leading economies such as Japan and Western European countries CITATION Fog04 \l 1033 (Fogel). The author provides statistical evidence on the improvement of life expectancies among various countries in the form of a chart showcasing the improvements from 1725 to 2100. Fogel’s use of the Waaler curve to illustrate the relationship between increased life expectancy and improved body-mass indices of people across the period of study serves as an effective tool or method of analyzing the historical growth of the world’s economy CITATION Fog04 \l 1033 (Fogel). The author goes ahead and points out at the decreasing mortality rates as being instrumental to the improvements in life expectancy in England and the other economies.
In analyzing the demographic changes, the author makes use or rather creates a time series of births and death rates going back to the 18th century. The data collected from the time series provides insight into some of the reasons for the improvements noticed on the two parameters and further allowed for the development of future projections on the same. Among the identified to be influencing the higher rates of mortality and low life expectancy during the 18th century include the low supply of food to balance the high amount of energy used in production CITATION Fog04 \l 1033 (Fogel). The food supply estimates provided in this chapter coupled with the time series on the physical differences of human beings from the two or three different generations second Fogel’s claim on the efficacy of techno-physio evolution CITATION Fog04 \l 1033 (Fogel). It is evident that people from the 19th and 20th generation have a bigger physique than their predecessors in the 19th century thanks to improved health conditions and increased availability of food. Productivity is thus bound to increase by an equally more significant margin, which leads to sustainable economic growth and development.
* The 20th Century Economic Changes and The Contributing Factors
Robert Fogel unveils the intricate details of the theory of techno-physio evolution and its subsequent positive effects on the economy. The author points at the synergetic relationship between the advancing technology and the improvements in the health and well-being of human beings CITATION Fog04 \l 1033 (Fogel). However, the improvements in human health and well-being are purely biological and not as a result of genetical changes. The biological improvements reflect through the higher body mass indices of individuals born within the 19th and 20th centuries respectively CITATION Fog04 \l 1033 (Fogel). The evolutionary process manifests rapidly across the global community and spreading through cultural inclinations to the said changes. Hence, disparities exist in the degree of change and its subsequent effects on the economies due to the differences in how individual countries embraced improving technology and health care improvement. In essence, the 20th century witnessed remarkable but unstable economic growth owing to the differences in the techno-physio evolution’s process and its unique occurrence for the economies under Fogel’s comprehensive study.
Fogel takes note of human being’s increased control over the environment during the 20th century that supersedes their awareness in the 18th and 19th centuries. The increased environmental awareness and control reflected positively in human’s physiology as they managed to create healthy environments for their well-being CITATION Fog04 \l 1033 (Fogel). Consequently, the body size of human beings recorded an increase of over 50% and life expectancy increasing by a record 100% within the same timeframe CITATION Fog04 \l 1033 (Fogel). The biological construct of human’s further portrayed the health changes as the body strength and capacity of the body organs to perform the vital functions for increased well-being. Among the techniques used to suppor...