Product Description

Large inequalities of income in a society have often been regarded as divisive and corrosive, and it is common knowledge that in rich societies the poor have shorter lives and suffer more from almost every social problem. This groundbreaking book, based on thirty years' research, demonstrates that more unequal societies are bad for almost everyone within them - the well-off as well as the poor. The remarkable data the book lays out and the measures it uses are like a spirit level which we can hold up to compare the conditions of different societies. The differences revealed, even between rich market democracies, are striking.Almost every modern social and environmental problem - ill-health, lack of community life, violence, drugs, obesity, mental illness, long working hours, big prison populations - is more likely to occur in a less equal society. The book goes to the heart of the apparent contrast between the material success and social failings of many modern societies. "The Spirit Level" does not simply provide a key to diagnosing our ills. It tells us how to shift the balance from self-interested 'consumerism' to a friendlier and more collaborative society. It shows a way out of the social and environmental problems which beset us and opens up a major new approach to improving the real quality of life, not just for the poor but for everyone. It is, in its conclusion, an optimistic book, which should revitalise politics and provide a new way of thinking about how we organise human communities.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #371 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Review
'what might be the most important book of the year' --John Grace, Guardian

Review
'This is a book with a big idea, big enough to change political thinking'

About the Author
Richard Wilkinson has played a formative role in international research and his work has been published in 10 languages. He studied economic history at the London School of Economics before training in epidemiology and is Professor Emeritus at the University of Nottingham Medical School and Honorary Professor at University College London. Kate Pickett is a Senior Lecturer at the University of York and a National Institute for Health Research Career Scientist. She studied physical anthropology at Cambridge, nutritional sciences at Cornell and epidemiology at Berkeley before spending four years as an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago.

Customer Reviews

Comments by Michael Calum Jacques, author of '1st Century Radical'.
Richard Wilkinson, is the Professor of Medical Epidemiology at Nottingham University. Kate Pickett is a Lecturer in Epidemiology at the University of York. Within the 400+ pages of this book, they emphasise that it is not the poor and the deprived in isolation who suffer from the effects of inequality, but also the bulk of that nation's population. According to their findings. incidences of mental illness, for example, are 500% higher across the whole population spectrum in the most unequal societies than they in the most 'eqaul' ones.

So this book is a book for all classes and it makes for a pretty good - if not dynamic - reading experience. Given half a chance, it will certainly set you thinking and musing over the values of a variety of societies, near and afar, but not least of all the society we live, work, and take our leisure in.

The co-authors tried to identify why the health of a population worsens as one slides further down the social scale. It is a s simple as that. They reckon that they have, together, amassed in excess of fifty years procuring and collating data from around the world. This data was then placed in juxtaposition to related medical data. Credit where credit is due; the authors were the first to synchronise these two vital, but hitherto separate, fields of research. .

Simply put, their method is to plot the level of health related/social problems against the difference in income of the world's twenty richest countries. Cleverly, this is repeated for each of the fifty United States. Each problem is dealt with separartely, the data being represented in graphic form. Wherever there is a large differential betwixt the two ends of the income scale, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, obesity, mental problems, and even teenage pregnancy occur more frequently, people live for a shorter period and commit suicide more regularly. Additionally, but just as damningly, children are not as well educated and less literate .

So which countries score well on this scale? Interestingly, if not entirely surprisingly, Scandanavia and Japan have can be seen to have the narrowest of divergence betwixt highest and lowest incomes and, indeed, boast the best psychological health of all. Conversely and rather predictably, those nations with the widest gulf between rich and poor, are thus plagued by the highest occurrence of health-related and social problems. Here's the rub; those countries are, in fact, Britain, the USA and Portugal.

Why is this? Well, their answer is simple, profound and disquieting; they argue that inequality, ipso facto, breeds stress across the full spectrum of society, not just among down trodden. Indeed, whilst subject to stress, individuals become far more susceptible to syndromes like depression, phobias of divers sorts, and basic anxiety This fact renders the individual far more likely to develop one of a range of physical potentially perilous conditions such as obesity, accompanying heart disease, addictions, immune deficiency as well as premature ageing. The super-rich thus become demons, a drain and a plague on society rather than a super-hero class of noble society saving investors, or the like.

If you're worried by all of this, have a good read of this book and act upon it! And on that very point, the authors themselves urge that greater equality becomes grounded and 'built in' to the models of present and future societies. Moreover, they have actually taken the commendable step of putting their actions where their thoughts are and have founded a non-profit making trust - entitled 'equalitytrust.org' - so that the data and evidence, which is presented within the pages of their book, can be better distributed and accessed on a broader scale; good thinking, guys!

Michael Calum Jacques

Equality is better than wealth
This is a great book. The fact that many poor outcomes are linked with poverty is well known. What the authors point out is that there is strong evidence showing that the level of poverty is much less important than the level of inequality in a society. Inequality causes health and social problems to people at the bottom but also at the top of the spectrum. So inequality is a lose lose situation.
I've read many science books recently. This is the best book I've read in many respects. It is very well written, very well documented, it deals with possibly the most serious political issue of our time, it is never patronising to the reader, and finally I was impressed by its scope: evidence comes from epidemiology, psychology, economics, sociology and more.
We should really send a copy of this book to each and every politician in the country. In recent times politicians have become obsessed with wealth creation. But wealth is a means not an end, and they are missing the forest for the trees.

Hammering out the consequences of socio-economic inequality
I heard about the book in a radio programme, then read a review in a newspaper. What I heard made me think that I should read it for myself. And it is very impressive. In chapter after chapter, covering social ill after social ill, whether it is the incidence of teenage pregnancies, or rates of mental illness, the authors document the relationship with inequality of incomes. The graphs that illustrate each section become predictable; which countries (or which US states) are going to rate high both in terms of levels of income inequality and in terms of obesity, educational performance, community cohesion etc is deeply concerning, especially if you live in Britain or the USA.

First off, the authors show that levels of the various social ills are not measures of overall national poverty or relative wealth. The developed countries have got beyond that. And each chapter shows that, although some of the most undesirable aspects of life in a modern developed country afflict those in society who are least able to do much about it, these ills affect the whole socio-economic spectrum, if to different degrees, in different ways. The authors also take care to show that there is a time factor, too: as countries like the UK or the USA have become sharply more unequal, so the incidence of the related social ills has grown in step.

Having convinced us that there is a causal relationship between greater inequality, the authors cleverly show how sustainability in the face of global warming, and energy / water / food shortages links into the picture; greater equality would help us towards dealing with these massive problems. The final part of the book has to be given to the question of how societies might go about becoming more equal. Inevitably, how societies go about change is a political question, and the authors clearly do not wish to appear to be wedded to one political tradition, and against others. This is the section where they make a variety of suggestions of directions in which we should be thinking.

My final question is which of the parties who will be soliciting my vote at the next election will be offering solutions to the problems of inequality. Perhaps I have grown old, and I have certainly grown cynical; but our political parties lack philosophies, lack the courage to risk alienating those who have plenty, and concern themselves only with how to buy votes and gain power. And our electoral system prevents any new political party from getting itself noticed through participation in parliament. It's going to be a long haul. For a start, though, lots of people are reading this book, and most are impressed by what they learn. As the threats of global warming, and world shortages of energy, water and food become more pressing, we have to hope that it will concentrate minds.