© 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2008 Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness/Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA Sociology of Health & Illness Vol. 30 No. 4 2008 ISSN 0141–9889, pp. 647–654 doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9566.2008.01085.x Blackwell Publishing Ltd Book reviews Navarro, V. (ed.) Neoliberalism, Globalization and Inequalities: consequences for health and quality of life. 2007 Amityville: Baywood Publishing 514 pp. $75 ISBN 978-0-89503-338-3 (hbk) $54 ISBN 978-0-89503-344-4 (pbk) Here is a collection of thought-provoking articles on the health effects of what is widely, wildly defined as neoliberalism or globalisation. In today’s ‘better-dead-than-red’ culture, Navarro and colleagues look at our increasingly global, unequal, neoliberal world from a lateral angle. Undisturbed by the atmosphere of dull conformity governing the mindset of most modern intellectuals, the authors of Neoliberalism, Globalization and Inequalities defy conventional wisdom and face the ‘global octopus’ called neoliberalism using a ‘class war’ approach. In an intellectual environ- ment pressing public health scientists not to go beyond a bunch of power-free, often-trivial social analyses, the book can be like a Gramscian shot of critical awareness into our veins. The five hundred and something pages of the book are filled with some quite incisive intellectual missiles. One can never underestimate the value of works like Navarro’s in awakening our lethargic intellectual elites and unveiling the subtle decep- tions of our corporate-led doctrinal system. More importantly, one hopes that such hopes are not vain. The book explains how globalisation policies have slowed down progress in terms of economic growth, health improvements and poverty reduction and continued to generate what we can term as ‘superfluous’ populations. About a half of all living souls of this small planet, actually. The apologists of the neoliberal system assure that the global octopus brings benefits to all. The chapters of this book tell another story. Those who will never become consumers or producers in the modern market circus have not been invited to join the party of globalisation. It is not by chance that the impact of the Inter- national Monetary Fund (IMF)’s and the World Bank’s Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs) have been particularly disastrous in the poorest regions of the world. Indeed, in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, rather than structural, these policies have been de-structural. Here and there the book invites the readers to be wary of the ideologically imbued language adopted in today’s global technocracies including the World Health Organization. Indeed, in order to transform ‘starvation’ into ‘underweight’ it takes some dedication, a conscious process of de-codification. But this seems consistent with the spirit of the globalisation era. After all, ‘neoliberal policies’ are liberal only in theory; in practice, they are ‘illiberal’. First, the one-size-fits- all policies of the IMF and World Bank restrict poor countries’ right of self-determination. Second, these reforms are outcomes of a there- is-no-alternative political ideology dismissive of any dissident proposal for societal modification. Third, the market-knows-best rhetoric of neolib- eralism delivers heavy subsidies to transnational (not multinational as Navarro notes) corpo- rations. A sort of ‘nanny state’ for the rich and ‘market Darwinism’ for everybody else. Not least but last, by transforming life in a (f)utilitarian, selfish race for power and profit, neoliberalism oppresses the most creative, cooperative, social impulses of individuals. Is there anything more important in life? Neoliberal policies are slaps in the face of true classical libertarians. At the idea of this ‘Washington Consensus’, they would probably roll a couple of times in their graves. Consensus of what? With whom? To the very tiny elite of rich and powerful (and their intellec- tual cheerleaders) the policies of Washington may look like a consensus. To everybody else, they look more like a nonsensus. Pure Orwell. Navarro’s book is not an exception to the nobody-is-perfect rule. For example, although the author is right on target when saying that ‘politics still matter’, his resolute rejection of the claim that, in today’s highly volatile global