This book, which is a collection of papers that were presented at the 1992 Conference on Society and Health in Boston, contains something for everyone who is interested in health as it intersects with societal issues. The purpose of the book is to bring together selected papers that focus on the importance of social variables as determinants of health. The internationally recognized scholars who contributed papers achieve the book's goal by describing the effects of race, sex, family, community, work, culture, politics, and the U.S. economy on the health of individual persons and populations. The chapters titled "Family Pathways to Child Health," "Gender and Health," and "Cigarette Smoking" contain much information that will be familiar to social scientists and health professionals. However, other chapters are enlightening because they include cross-cultural and international comparisons or material that has not previously received much attention, such as the relation of height to the upward mobility of women, which interests this tall reviewer.

Society and Health is rich in valuable information and has three particular strengths. First, classic papers, important research reports, reflective essays, and other scholarly writings are included in the extensive bibliographies that accompany each chapter. Second, several papers include carefully constructed tables, such as the two on selected community studies of social and physical environmental characteristics in the chapter on community health and the two on quality-of-life benefits and clinical preventive services in the chapter titled "The Role of Medical Care in Determining Health." Third, several chapters close with a few paragraphs describing directions for and the implications of future research using both quantitative and qualitative methods.

Historical perspectives on the intersections of health and society are woven throughout the text but are especially well captured in the references and tables. This immensely readable book will serve as a reference work for years to come.