Low Income, Social Growth, and Good Health: A History of Twelve Countries (California/Milbank Books on Health and the Public) [Hardcover]

James C. Riley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 9, 2007 | ISBN-10: 0520252861 | ISBN-13: 978-0520252868 | Edition: 1

This book studies the experience of twelve countries that have broken through the limits that low incomes so often impose on human survival: China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Oman, Panama, the former Soviet Union, Sri Lanka, and Venezuela. Most made impressive gains in life expectancy in the decades after 1920, and by 1960 nearly matched the rich countries in survival. James C. Riley finds that all of these countries enjoyed significant social growth, all invested in public health, and all gained the people's participation in the effort to improve their own lives and health. This innovative analysis suggests an alternative model of growth in which the measure of a nation's success is not its per capita income but the life expectancy of its population.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Well written and carefully laid out, this book is accessible to a wide audience."--Choice

From the Inside Flap

"James Riley has crowned decades of work on the improvement of health with a splendid book that is engagingly written and accessible to all. It is a guide to the national achievement of better health and greater longevity. Hopefully, this book will help change the world."--John C. Caldwell, Emeritus Professor of Demography, Australian National University, Canberra

"James Riley's Low Income, Social Growth, and Good Health represents another major contribution to the understanding of the world-wide mortality transition of the past two centuries. Based upon extensive research, this book is important for historians and epidemiologists, as well as central to current policy debates, because of its demonstrations of the many factors that have influenced better health in addition to economic growth and new medications."--Stanley Engerman, John H. Munro Professor of Economics and History, University of Rochester

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 248 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (October 9, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520252861
• ISBN-13: 978-0520252868
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #312,129 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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