The Spirit Level

Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better

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Paperback

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A groundbreaking work on the root cause of our ills, which is changing the way politicians think

Why do we mistrust people more in the UK than in Japan? Why do Americans have higher rates of teenage pregnancy than the French? What makes the Swedish thinner than the Greeks? The answer: inequality.

This groundbreaking book, based on years of research, provides hard evidence to show:

- How almost everything - from life expectancy to depression levels, violence to illiteracy - is affected not by how wealthy a society is, but how equal it is
- That societies with a bigger gap between rich and poor are bad for everyone in them - including the well-off
- How we can find positive solutions and move towards a happier, fairer future

Urgent, provocative and genuinely uplifting, The Spirit Level has been heralded as providing a new way of thinking about ourselves and our communities, and could change the way you see the world.

Published: 10 January 2011
ISBN: 9780241954294
Imprint: Penguin Press
Format: Paperback
Pages: 400
RRP: $30.00

Categories:

Society & culture

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About the authors

Kate Pickett

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.

Richard Wilkinson

Richard Wilkinson is Professor Emeritus of Social Epidemiology at the University of Nottingham and Honorary Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London.