Occupational Medicine 2018;68:73–76 © The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Occupational Medicine. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com BOOK REVIEWS doi:10.1093/occmed/kqx160 Textbook of Global Health Anne-Emanuelle Birn, Yogan Pillay, Timothy H. Holtz. Published by Oxford University Press, New York, 4th edition, 2017 (revised). ISBN: 987-0199392285. Price: £64 (hardback). 674 pp. Anne-Emanuelle Birn is Professor of Critical Development Studies and Social Behavioural Health Sciences at the University of Toronto School of Public Health. She served as Canada Research Chair in International Health from 2003 to 2013. In 2014, she was recognized among the top 100 Women Leaders in Global Health. Yogan Pillay is Deputy Director General for HIV, Tuberculosis, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Programmes in the National Department of Health, South Africa. He has 20 years’ experience in health sys- tem reforms and has published widely on HIV, tubercu- losis and health systems. Timothy H. Holtz is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Global Health at the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health. He worked for the US Centers for Disease Control and as a consultant to the World Health Organization. He co-founded Doctors for Global Health, a health and social justice nongovernmental organization. Formerly known as the ‘Basch’ textbook, this is a complete revision of the Textbook of International Health, which sold over 25 000 copies across three editions. It offers a broad introduction to global health integrating critical analytic approaches.The book synthesizes history, epidemiology, environmental studies, economics, policy and fnancing to provide a comprehensive overview of how these factors infuence health patterns within coun- tries and across the globe. The major determinants of regional global health are discussed, with description of interventions undertaken at community, national and international levels. The authors claim this is the frst global health textbook employing a political economy of health analytic framework, for students, practitioners and advocates for global health. Health problems are rooted at the confuence of social, political, economic and biomedical factors that together inform the understanding of global health. These fac- tors operate individually, in combination or synergistic- ally. The frst section (chapters 1–7) provides the basic tools for understanding global health. Chapters 8–12 analyse global health and present challenges from the priority areas with constructs and concepts for under- standing and improving global health efforts. The fnal section (chapters 13 and 14) examines global health policy formulation and the roles and responsibilities of those working in the feld locally, internationally and transnationally. A central tenet of the book is whether global health ends are better served by targeted interventions or by broad-based efforts to redistribute the social, polit- ical and economic resources that determine the health of populations? Although health technologies have improved, the social, administrative and political disrup- tion accompanying economic growth can still impede the delivery of health improvements. The more insidious threats to global collective security and health are posed by the continuous and accumulating social inequality and environmental degradation produced by untram- melled free market growth. This may, in the long run, be even more devastating to global population health.There is an extensive analysis of the societal factors shaping health, how health inequities challenge public health, international aid or socio-economic policymaking. The authors describe: the historical dynamics; the political economy of health and current global health structure, including its actors, agencies and activities; social health determinants, from global trade and investment trea- ties to social policies, living and working conditions; the role of health data in measuring health inequities; major causes of global illness and mortality beyond commu- nicable versus non-communicable diseases, deprivation, work, globalization, trade/investment, fnancial liberal- ization, precarious work, environmental degradation and contamination; the principles of health systems and politics of health fnancing; and community, national and transnational social justice approaches to healthy societies. Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/occmed/article-abstract/68/1/73/4641825 by guest on 21 July 2020