Synopses & Reviews
"With the compelling evidence that more redistributive universal welfare benefits and education provide the main escalator to reducing inequalities, this is a timely and thought-provoking book for all those concerned to reduce our societies embedded structural inequalities, cumulative disadvantages and health inequalities." Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health
"Unequal Lives is the book that we have all been waiting for. In this skilfully crafted volume, Hilary Graham makes the vital connection between health inequalities and social inequalities in a way that opens up new understandings of both concepts and consequences for policy. Scholarly yet accessible, this is a 'must read' book for researchers, policymakers and practitioners alike."
Margaret Whitehead, WH Duncan Professor of Public Health, University of Liverpool, UK
- What is meant by health inequalities and socioeconomic inequalities?
- What evidence is there to support the link between socioeconomic status and health?
- Why do these links persist over time, between and within societies, and across peoples lives?
- What part do policies play in the persistence of social and health inequalities?
Unequal Lives provides an evidence-based introduction to social and health inequalities. It brings together research from social epidemiology, sociology and social policy to guide the reader to an understanding of why peoples lives and peoples health remain so unequal, even in rich societies where there is more than enough for all.
The book introduces the non-specialist to key concepts like health inequalities and health inequities, social class and socioeconomic position, social determinants and life course, as well as to the key indicators of health and socioeconomic position.
It provides a wealth of evidence on socioeconomic inequalities in health at both national and global level, and explores how these inequalities persist as countries industrialise, patterns of employment and family life change, and chronic diseases emerge as the big killers.
Consideration is given to policy and its impact on inequalities within the UK, Europe and beyond and an assessment made of health inequalities throughout the life.
This new book from best selling author Hilary Graham is of particular interest to students in sociology, social policy, health studies, health promotion and public health as well as to social work and community nursing students and those working in the health and welfare fields.
Customers in the USA can place orders by visiting www.openupusa.com or calling 1 800 338 3987.
Review
and#8220;Robust collection. . . . The real and#8216;scandal of our times,and#8217; Dorling concludes, is not that health inequalities have widened but that they persist in spite of improvements in knowledge and technology that could, but do not, benefit all.and#8221; and#160;
Review
and#8220;The breadth and depth of scholarship displayed in this book is staggeringand#8212;but what impresses just as much is how engagingly Danny Dorling communicates the important truths about the scandal of our times.and#8221;
Review
"Professor Dorling is a meticulous scholar who talks personally and directly to the reader rather than to other academics, and with a powerful message: willful ignorance of the social causes of illness and death is taking us back to Victorian levels of inequality."
Review
"Forensic, persuasive, original, impassioned, readable and occasionally even optimistic, Danny Dorling frames inequality in such a way as to demand action. His data and analysis are invaluable ammunition."
Synopsis
Health inequalities are the most important inequalities of all, and in the United States and United Kingdom they have reached a formidable size. In this new book from provocative critic Daniel Dorling, health inequalities are held up as the scandal of our times. While health is generally better now than it was a century ago, the gaps in life expectancy between regions, citiesandmdash;even neighborhoodsandmdash;have surpassed the worst measures recorded over the past century. Drawing on international studies, annotated lectures, newspaper articles, and interviews, Dorling provides an authoritative critique of this egregious social problem, calling for immediate action against an injustice that any leading nation should be ashamed to allow.
About the Author
Danny Dorling is professor of human geography at the University of Sheffield. He is the author of over twenty-five books, including Injustice, Fair Play, and Bankrupt Britain, all published by the Policy Press.
Table of Contents
Sources of extracts
Foreword
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; S. V. Subramanian, Professor of Population Health and Geography,and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Harvard School of Public Health
Acknowledgements
Section I: The long view
1. Unequal health: why a scandal, and why now?
2. The long view: from 1817 to 2012
3. The ghost of Christmas past: health effects of poverty in London in 1896 and 1991
4. Infant mortality and social progress in Britain, 1905and#8211;2005
5. Who cares in England and Wales? The Positive Care Law
Section II: The liberal record
6. Paving the way for and#8216;any willing providerand#8217; to privatise the NHS
7. Health inequalities and New Labour: how the promises compare with real progress
8. Closer to equality? Assessing New Labourand#8217;s record on health after 10 years in government
9. Social harm and social policy in Britain
10. Inequalities in premature mortality in Britain: observational study from 1921 to 2007
Section III: Medicine and politics
11. Medicine is a social science and politics is nothing else but medicine on a large scale
12. Time for a smoke: one cigarette is equivalent to 11 minutes of life expectancy
13. Private finance: and#8216;Select Committeeand#8217;s report used parliamentary privilege unacceptablyand#8217;
14. Government cover-ups: Labourand#8217;s and#8216;Black Reportand#8217; moment
15. Putting the sick to work: the real Mental Health Bill
16. Losing votes and voters: would action on inequality have saved New Labour?
17. Mapping inequalities in Britain
18. Londonand#8217;s political landscapes
Section IV: Despair and joy
19. Preserving sanity when everything is related to everything else
20. Suicide: the spatial and social components of despair in Britain, 1980and#8211;2000
21. How suicide rates have risen during periods of Conservative government, 1901and#8211;2000
22. The inequality hypothesis: thesis, antithesis and a synthesis23. Housing and identity: how place makes race
24. Border controls? Hereand#8217;s a long line of reasons to relax
25. and#8216;Poor kidsand#8217;, interview with Kerry Oand#8217;Brien, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Section V: Global inequality
26. Less suffering
27. How do the other four fifths live?
28. Global inequality of life expectancy due to AIDS
29. Life expectancy: women now on top everywhere
30. Mortality in relation to sex in the affluent world
31. Anamorphosis, the geography of physicians, and mortality
32. The global impact of income inequality on health by age: an observational study
33. Wars, massacres and atrocities of the 20th century
34. Re-evaluating self-evaluation. A commentary on Jen, Jones and Johnston
35. Americaand#8217;s debt to the world
Section VI: Thinking, drawing and counting
36. Itand#8217;s the way that you do it
37. Worldmapper: the human anatomy of a small planet
38. Using statistics to describe and explore data
39. Socio-demographic diversity and unexplained variation in death rates among the most deprived areas in Britain
40. What if it were not the custard cream that did for them?
Section VII: Changing demographics and ageing populations
41. Growing old gracefully
42. Measuring the impact of major life events on happiness
43. Roads, casualties and public health: the open sewers of the 21st century
44. Tackling global health inequalities: closing the health gap in a generation
45. How will we care for the centenarians of the future?
46. Weand#8217;re all . . . just little bits of history repeating
47. Future people and shifting power
48. Looking on the bright side
Index