Scott Rozelle, Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford University

As the glittering skyline in Shanghai seemingly attests, China has quickly transformed itself from a place of stark poverty into a modern, urban, technologically savvy economic powerhouse. As Scott Rozelle and Natalie Hell show in "Invisible China: How the Urban-Rural Divide Threatens China’s Rise", the truth is more complicated and might be a serious cause for concern. China’s growth has relied heavily on unskilled labor. While this national growth strategy has been effective for three decades, the unskilled wage rate has been rising for more than a decade. Rozelle and Hell speak not only to an urgent humanitarian concern but also a potential economic crisis that could upend economies and foreign relations around the globe. If too many are left structurally unemployable, the implications both inside and outside of China could be serious.