MTU Library Catalogue

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Low income, social growth, and good health : a history of twelve countries / James C. Riley.

By: Riley, James C.
Contributor(s): Milbank Memorial Fund.
Material type: materialTypeLabelBookSeries: California/Milbank books on health and the public ; 17.Publisher: Berkeley : New York : University of California Press ; Milbank Memorial Fund, c2008Description: xvi, 229 p. ; 24cm.Content type: text Media type: unmediated Carrier type: volumeISBN: 9780520252868; 0520252861.Subject(s): Life expectancy -- Economic aspects -- Case studies | Life Expectancy -- ethnology -- Case Reports | Public health & preventive medicine | Income -- Case Reports | Society | Socioeconomic Factors -- Case Reports | World Health -- Case ReportsDDC classification: 304.645 RIL
Contents:
Life expectancy and income among the first countries to begin health transitions -- Which countries should be studied? -- A colonizer and the country colonized : Japan and Korea -- Very low income is not a barrier : Sri Lanka -- Two neighbors : Panama and Costa Rica -- Capitalism and communism, dictatorship and democracy : Cuba and Jamaica -- The Soviet Union and China -- Oil-rich lands -- Income inequality and health in Mexico -- Fecal disease, malaria, and tuberculosis.
Summary: This title studies the experience of 12 countries that have broken through the limits that low incomes so often impose on human survival: China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Oman, Panama, the former Soviet Union, Sri Lanka, and Venezuela.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Copy number Status Barcode
General lending MTU Kerry North Campus Library Ground Floor Main 304.645 RIL (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Available 38888000581151
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This book studies the experience of twelve countries that have broken through the limits that low incomes so often impose on human survival: China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Oman, Panama, the former Soviet Union, Sri Lanka, and Venezuela. Most made impressive gains in life expectancy in the decades after 1920, and by 1960 nearly matched the rich countries in survival. James C. Riley finds that all of these countries enjoyed significant social growth, all invested in public health, and all gained the people's participation in the effort to improve their own lives and health. This innovative analysis suggests an alternative model of growth in which the measure of a nation's success is not its per capita income but the life expectancy of its population.

Formerly CIP. Uk

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Life expectancy and income among the first countries to begin health transitions -- Which countries should be studied? -- A colonizer and the country colonized : Japan and Korea -- Very low income is not a barrier : Sri Lanka -- Two neighbors : Panama and Costa Rica -- Capitalism and communism, dictatorship and democracy : Cuba and Jamaica -- The Soviet Union and China -- Oil-rich lands -- Income inequality and health in Mexico -- Fecal disease, malaria, and tuberculosis.

This title studies the experience of 12 countries that have broken through the limits that low incomes so often impose on human survival: China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Oman, Panama, the former Soviet Union, Sri Lanka, and Venezuela.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

  • List of Illustrations (p. ix)
  • Foreword (p. xiii)
  • Preface and Acknowledgments (p. xv)
  • Introduction (p. 1)
  • 1 Life Expectancy and Income among the First Countries to Begin Health Transitions (p. 19)
  • 2 Which Countries Should Be Studied? (p. 41)
  • 3 A Colonizer and the Country Colonized: Japan and Korea (p. 53)
  • 4 Very Low Income Is Not a Barrier; Sri Lanka (p. 65)
  • 5 Two Neighbors: Panama and Costa Rica (p. 75)
  • 6 Capitalism and Communism, Dictatorship and Democracy: Cuba and Jamaica (p. 88)
  • 7 The Soviet and Chinese Models of Social Development (p. 100)
  • 8 Oil-Rich Lands (p. 116)
  • 9 The Latin American Case: Income Inequality and Health in Mexico (p. 133)
  • 10 limiting Mortality from Fecal Disease, Malaria, and Tuberculosis (p. 142)
  • Conclusion (p. 161)
  • Appendix Chronology of Health Transitions and Gross Domestic Product per Capita in 167 Countries (p. 175)
  • Notes (p. 183)
  • Index (p. 221)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Riley (history, Indiana Univ.) uses a historical approach to investigate the puzzle of low income yet high average life expectancy in 12 countries: Japan and Korea; Sri Lanka; Panama and Costa Rica; Cuba and Jamaica; the former Soviet Union and China; Oman; and Venezuela and Mexico. He attributes the high survival rate these countries enjoy to colonizers' influence on natives with respect to sanitation practices that lead to lower incidence of fecal diseases, malaria, and tuberculosis; on the governments' investment in public health as a manifestation of social growth; and on the cooperation of citizens to improve their own lives and health. Riley points out that economic development does not have to manifest itself in higher per capita incomes, but rather in the life expectancy of a country's population. To him, ultimately it is social development that will ensure healthier lives for people in developing countries, rather than economic development as currently measured. He does acknowledge, however, that to get developing countries on the path of healthy lives would now require some minimum standard of living as measured by real per capita income. Well written and carefully laid out, this book is accessible to a wide audience. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Public, academic, and professional library collections. M. Q. Dao Eastern Illinois University

Author notes provided by Syndetics

James C. Riley is Professor of History at Indiana University. He is the author of Poverty and Life Expectancy: The Jamaica Paradox (2005) and Rising Life Expectancy: A Global History (2001).