If you had to read one book on global health...
If there is 1 book that you would like all global health students to read, it would be.....? Here is an impressive list of over 190 books generated by this question on Twitter!
Post updated on 14 Jan 2021
I teach an introductory course on global health, and am always looking to make it better. I posed a question on Twitter: If there is 1 book that you would like all global health students to read, it would be.....?
The question elicited a large number of responses and re-tweets. Here is the compilation of over 190 books recommended by a variety of people. I have provided a hyperlink to a website with more details on each book. The list is alphabetically organized using the last name of the first author of the book. I have made no effort to rank the books (which is impossible, in any case!) nor provide numbers on how many times a book was recommended (too much work!).
I am grateful to all those who contributed to this list. I am keeping it updated, roughly on a quarterly basis.
For global health movies, see this compilation of over 60 inspiring films!
Happy reading!
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Author(s) |
Book |
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Adams, Vincanne |
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| Anderson, Warwick | Colonial Pathologies: American Tropical Medicine, Race, and Hygiene in the Philippines |
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Antia, Noshir |
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| Arole, Rajanikant & Mabelle | Jamkhed: A Comprehensive Rural Health Project |
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Atkinson, Anthony |
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Baker, Josephine |
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Bang, Rani |
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Bashford, Alison |
Imperial Hygiene: A Critical History of Colonialism, Nationalism and Public Health |
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Barber, Benjamin |
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Bartolo, Pietro & Tilotta, Lidia |
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Banerjee, Abhijit & Duflo, Esther |
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Banerjee, Abhijit & Duflo, Esther |
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| Beard, Mary | Women & Power: A Manifesto |
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Behrman, Greg |
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Benatar, Solomon |
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Benton, Adia |
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Berkowitz, Aaron |
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Bhambra, Gurminder & Gebrial, Dalia & Nisanclogu, Kerem |
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Biehl, João & Petryna, Adriana |
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Birn, Anne-Emanuelle & Pillay, Yogan & Holtz, Timothy |
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Bollyky, Thomas |
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Buse, Kent & Mays, Nicholas & Walt, Gill |
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Brauman, Rony |
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| Bresnahan, Andrew & Brindamour, Mahli & Charles, Christopher | Upstream Medicine: Doctors for a Healthy Society |
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Cagle, Hugh |
Assembling the Tropics: Science and Medicine in Portugal's Empire |
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Camus, Albert |
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Celi, Leo Anthony & Majumder Maimuna & Ordonez, Patricia & Osorio, Juan Sebastian & Paik, Kenneth & Somai, Melek |
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Chigudu, Simukai |
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Clinton, Chelsea & Sridhar, Devi |
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| Collins, Charles & Green, Andrew | Valuing Health Systems: A Framework for Low and Middle Income Countries |
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Conrad, Joseph |
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Connelly, Matthew |
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| Crane, Johanna | Scrambling for Africa: AIDS, Expertise, and the Rise of American Global Health Science |
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Crisp, Nigel |
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Daar, Abdallah & Singer, Peter |
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| Davis, Meg | |
| Davis, Mike | |
| Deaton, Angus | The Great Escape-Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality |
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Desowitz, Robert |
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| Doyal, Lesley & Pennell, Imogen | The Political Economy of Health |
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Dubos, Rene |
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Easterly, William |
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Easterly, William |
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| Eban, Katherine | Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom |
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Epstein, Helen |
The Invisible Cure: Why We Are Losing the Fight Against AIDS in Africa |
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Fadiman, Anne |
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Fanon, Frantz |
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Fanon, Frantz |
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Farmer, Paul |
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Farmer, Paul |
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Farmer, Paul |
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Farmer, Paul |
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Farmer, Paul |
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Farmer, Paul |
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Ferris, Ramesh |
Better than a Cure: One Man's Journey to Free the World of Polio |
| Fifield, Adam | A Mighty Purpose How Jim Grant Sold the World on Saving Its Children |
| Flood, Colleen & Gross, Aeyal | |
| Flood, Colleen; Vanessa MacDonnell, Jane Philpott, Sophie Thériault, Sridhar Venkatapuram | |
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Foege, William |
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Folbre, Nancy |
Who Pays for the Kids?: Gender and the Structures of Constraint |
| France, David | How to Survive a Plague |
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Freire, Paulo |
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Frerichs, Ralph |
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Freudenberg, Nicholas |
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| Gates, Melinda | The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World |
| Garrett, Laurie | The Coming Plague |
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Garrett, Laurie |
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Gawande, Atul |
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Gawande, Atul |
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George, Rose |
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| Giridharadas, Anand | Winners Take All |
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Glassman, Amanda & Temin, Miriam |
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Goldhill, David |
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| Gostin, Lawrence & Meier, Benjamin Mason | Foundations of Global Health & Human Rights |
| Gostin, Lawrence | Global Health Law |
| Green, Monica (editor) |
Pandemic Disease in the Medieval World: Rethinking the Black Death |
| Harman, Sophie | Global Health Governance |
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Harrison, Gordon |
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| Hickel, Jason | The Divide: Global Inequality from Conquest to Free Markets |
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Hochschild, Adam |
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Hofman, Michiel & Au Sokhieng |
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Hoen, Ellen 't |
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Holmes, Seth |
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| Horton, Richard |
The COVID-19 Catastrophe: What's Gone Wrong and How to Stop It Happening Again |
| Hotez, Peter | Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel's Autism: My Journey as a Vaccine Scientist, Pediatrician, and Autism Dad |
| Hunleth, Jean | Children as Caregivers: The Global Fight against Tuberculosis and HIV in Zambia |
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Johnson, Stephen |
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic |
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Kabeer, Naila |
Reversed Realities: Gender Hierarchies in Development Thought |
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Keltner, Dacher |
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| Kendi, Ibram | How to Be an Antiracist |
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Kerouedan, Dominique |
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Keyes, Katherine & Galea, Sandro |
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Kidder, Tracy |
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Klein, Naomi |
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Krieger, Nancy |
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Krishna, Anirudh |
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Kucharski, Adam |
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Labonte, Ronald & Ruckert, Arne |
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Lakoff, Andrew |
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Lewis, Stephen |
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Lipsky, Michael |
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Livingston, Julie |
Improvising Medicine: An African Oncology Ward in an Emerging Cancer Epidemic |
| Lister, John | Health Policy Reform: Global Health Versus Private Profit |
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Lougheed, Kathryn |
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Luhrmann, TM |
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Madan, TN |
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Marmot, Michael |
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| Maskalyk, James | Six Months in Sudan |
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Mayblin, Lucy |
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Maxmen, Amy |
Ebola's Unpaid Heroes: How billions in aid skips over those at the frontline |
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McGoey, Linsey |
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McGuire, James |
Wealth, Health, and Democracy in East Asia and Latin America |
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McKenna, Maryn |
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McNeill, William Hardy |
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| Meier, Benjamin Mason & Gostin, Lawrence | Human Rights in Global Health: Rights-Based Governance for a Globalizing World |
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Melrose, Dianna |
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Mendenhall, Emily & Nichter, Mark |
Rethinking Diabetes: Entanglements with Trauma, Poverty, and HIV |
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Merson, Michael |
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Morris, JN |
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| Mugyenyi, Peter | Genocide by Denial: How Profiteering from HIV/AIDS Killed Millions |
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Mukwege, Denis |
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Munk, Nina |
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Mukherjee, Joia |
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Nattrass, Nicoli |
Mortal Combat: AIDS Denialism and the Struggle for Antiretrovirals in South Africa |
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Novogratz, Jacqueline |
The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World |
| Noy, Shiri | Banking on Health The World Bank and Health Sector Reform in Latin America |
| Nunes, Joao | Security, Emancipation and the Politics of Health |
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Orbinski, James |
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Oshinsky, David |
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Packard, Randall |
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Packard, Randall |
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Paris, Django & Winn, M |
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Patel, Raj |
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Pepin, Jacques |
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Petchesky, Rosalind |
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People's Health Movement, Medact, Third World Network, Health Poverty Action, Medico International, and ALAMES |
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| Phillips, Ben | How To Fight Inequality And Why That Fight Needs You |
| Picard, Andre | Matters of Life and Death |
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Piot, Peter |
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Pisani, Elizabeth |
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Prince, Ruth |
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Quick, Jonathan |
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Quammen, David |
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Rajan, Raghuram |
The Third Pillar: How Markets and the State Leave the Community Behind |
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Rao, Sujatha |
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Rawls, John |
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Richardson, Eugene |
Epidemic Illusions: On the Coloniality of Global Public Health |
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Rosling, Hans |
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Rosenberg, Mark |
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| Roy, Arundhati | My Seditious Heart |
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Riley, James |
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Ryan, Frank |
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| Sainath, P |
Everybody Loves a Good Drought: Stories from India's Poorest Districts |
| Sanders, David | The struggle for health: Medicine and the politics of underdevelopment |
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Sen, Amartya |
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Sen, Amartya |
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Sen, Gita |
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Shah, Sonia |
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Shaheen-Hussain, Samir |
Fighting for a Hand to Hold: Confronting Medical Colonialism against Indigenous Children in Canada |
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Shilts, Randy |
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Sinclair, Upton |
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| Skloot, Rebecca | The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks |
| Skolnik, Richard | Global Health 101 |
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Smith, Lindia |
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Sontag, Susan |
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| Sridhar, Devi | The Battle Against Hunger |
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Steinberg, Jonny |
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| Strathdee, Steffanie & Patterson, Thomas | The Perfect Predator |
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Stuckler, David & Basu, Sanjay |
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Supari, Siti |
It's Time for the World to Change in the Spirit of Dignity, Equity and Transparency |
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Szreter, Simon |
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| Thiong’o, Ngugi wa | Secure the Base: Making Africa Visible in the Globe |
| Tracey, Kevin | |
| Tumbe, Chinmay | |
| Varlik, Nukhet | |
| Venkatapuram, Sridhar | Health Justice: An Argument from the Capabilities Approach |
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Verghese, Abraham |
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Vineis, Paulo |
Health Without Borders: Epidemics in the Era of Globalization |
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Walsh, Sinead & Johnson |
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Wald, Priscilla |
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Walt, Gill |
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Washington, Harriet |
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Weber, Leanne |
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Wendland, Claire |
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Werner, David |
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| Werner, David & Sanders, David | Questioning the Solution: The Politics of Primary Health Care and Child Survival |
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Werner, David |
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Wilkerson, Isabel |
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Wilkinson, David & Pickett, Kate |
The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better |
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Willem, Jean Pierre |
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Woodward, Bob |
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Wolff, Jonathan |
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World Health Organization |
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Yanguas, Pablo |
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Yamin, Alicia |
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| Yasmin, Seema | The Impatient Dr. Lange: One Man's Fight to End the Global HIV Epidemic |
| Youde, Jeremy | Global Health Governance |
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Zinsser, Hans |
List updated: 14 Jan 2021
3 Comments
I would like to add:
1. Doyal, Lesley; Pennel Imogen -The Political Economy of Health, Pluto Press, London, 1979 . (Altogether a stimulating book and a worthy contribution to current debates on the politics of health Lancet)
This book inspired many of us to gaze at an ill person attending ones clinic, a group of people you interact, gender you have and society in which you live, with the glasses of Social Science, Politics and Economics.
2. Ehrenrich, Barbara and English, Deirdre ; For Her Own Good - 150 years if the Experts advice to women. Pluto Press, London, 1979 (Again, this work laid down foundation of non-pure scientific nature of medical science, particularly about women's body, soul and nature, her social identity and her illnesses. It pushed the women's health movement globally.)
3. Sujatha V., Abraham, Leena (Ed.); Medical Pluralism in Contemporary India, Orient Black Swan, Hyderabad (2012)
(This book adds on a historical, cultural and in someway a subaltern political perspective about Health, illnesses and health care in the persisting existence of 'other', 'alternate', 'indigenous', 'ancient or traditional' medicine in the predominant 'biomedicine', 'modern or scientific' medicine. Though it is contextually placed in Indian setting, it's application is equally relevant, globally)
Dhruv Mankad
And here is my list!! http://www.publichealthstrategies.net/most-inspiring-public-health-books/
Now, this sounds like a birthday wish list. Great collection here. Will definitely add to my library from these.