Health and Human Rights: A Reader
Edited by Jonathan M. Mann, Sofia Gruskin, Michael A. Grodin, and George J. Annas
Routledge, 1999, 504 pp.
The editors of this reader have compiled a wide range of previously published, noteworthy articles on topics in public health and human rights and have framed them in terms of their context, nature, and importance to provide meaningful insight into the growing field that has developed at the intersection of these two areas. The articles explore the natural reciprocity that has emerged between health and rights as it has become clear that promoting health requires concrete efforts to ensure human rights and dignity, and conversely that achieving human rights necessitates explicit attention to health and its social determinants. Addressing issues like the impact of health policies and programs on human rights, the effect human rights violations can have on health, and the role human rights plays in medicine, each chapter offers a unique piece to the mosaic that is health and human rights. Other subjects covered include the health consequences of civil and international conflicts, discrimination as a threat to well-being, human rights infringements in biomedical and behavioral research, women's reproductive health and reproductive rights, and human rights and vulnerability to hiv/aids. The contributors also offer recommendations for applying the conceptual framework of this research to the real world through advocacy and action.

Social Epidemiology
Edited by Lisa F. Berkman and Ichiro Kawachi
Oxford University Press, 2000, 392 pp.
This volume represents one of the first attempts to bring together an internationally renowned group of experts to define collectively the new field of social epidemiology. Over the past three decades, an outpouring of interest in how society and different forms of social organization influence health and well-being has forged a new focus of study in epidemiology--one that goes beyond exploring how physical or behavioral risk factors might determine health outcomes to understanding the social context in which they occur. The contributors to this text expound on a range of social conditions that appear to play a significant role in governing health status and describe new methodologies in statistics, physiology, public policy, and social psychology brought on by this latest epidemiologic approach. Topics covered include socioeconomic inequality and the impact of discrimination on health; the work environment and labor market's effect on health status; the role of community and social relations in health; and the psychological factors associated with health outcomes. Because it offers a fresh perspective on the forces linked to the occurrence of disease, the book also introduces innovative ways to think about classifying disease, designing effective interventions, and evaluating social policy. As such, it represents a major revolution in thinking about public health.

Humanitarian Crises: The Medical and Public Health Response
Edited by Jennifer Leaning, Susan M. Briggs, and Lincoln C. Chen
Harvard University Press, 1999, 380 pp.
Crises that threaten the lives and security of large civilian populations have become all-too-frequent occurrences in the modern-day world. These conflicts have ranged in number from 25 to 40 in the years since the end of the Cold War, directly involving more than 100 million people across the globe. The complexity of issues that characterize these events--mass population dislocation, environmental destruction, pervasive insecurity, and gross human rights violations--makes intervention and evaluation by the international relief community a particularly demanding enterprise. This collection of essays, penned by practitioners and academics actively engaged in crisis management, seeks to clarify the political, social, and economic factors that cause and sustain these situations and offers practical solutions to the technical challenges and ethical dilemmas faced by those who respond to them. Aimed at the medical and public health community in particular, each chapter addresses a specific issue in humanitarian crisis assessment and response, noting under what conditions traditional relief methods have worked and where unprecedented changes in scale and intensity have mandated new practices. As the world faces the prospect of ongoing and new humanitarian emergencies, this book provides an intellectual framework upon which the global health community can build to improve performance, promote international dialogue, and refine policy.

The Society and Population Health Reader: Income Inequality and Health
Edited by Ichiro Kawachi, Bruce P. Kennedy, and Richard G. Wilkinson
New Press, 1999, 496 pp.
This two-volume reader is dedicated to the long-neglected relationship between our societal structures and health and collects the original writings of leading social scientists and medical researchers from across the globe on the links between these two areas. Their overriding conclusion is that variations in health within a population are primarily related to social factors like income inequality, educational differences, and racism. This first volume of the set focuses in particular on the notion that socioeconomic status is increasingly understood to be the single most powerful determinant of health. It shows that societies with great disparities in income have far higher tolls of certain illnesses and lower life expectancies across all social classes than more equitable societies be they rich or poor. The contributors conclude that even a modest reduction in income inequality would yield significant health benefits.

Alexandra Benis