MixedFinancial Times (UK)... the picture they paint is painstaking in its detail and vivid in its importance ... the authors rely less on data and evidence, more on conjecture and sociological speculation ... And while the strength of the earlier part of Deaths of Despair lies in its statistics and evidence, it is here, where analysis is replaced by speculation, that the book is less satisfactory ... The final policy section feels muddled—the authors slip into corporation, bank and politico-bashing with rather a Trumpian tone but little analysis or policy to back it up ... As a result, the gap between their rhetoric and policy prescriptions feels achingly wide ... Not only do their calls for a \'modest\' rise in the minimum wage and weaker patent protection seem insufficient, none of the policy discussion even tries to address the cultural arguments about community cohesion and pride upon which the authors pin so much earlier in the book.
