Post updated on March 2023
Four years ago, 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 250 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!
|
Author(s) |
Book |
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Abu-Sada, Caroline |
In the Eyes of Others: How People in Crises Perceive Humanitarian Aid |
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Adams, Vincanne |
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| Adeyi, Olusoji |
Global Health In Practice: Investing Amidst Pandemics, Denial Of Evidence, And Neo-dependency |
| Adler-Bolton, Beatrice & Vierkant, Artie | |
| Akbar, Arifa | Consumed: A Sister's Story |
| Alexander, Jessica | Chasing Chaos: My Decade In and Out of Humanitarian Aid |
| Anderson, Warwick | Colonial Pathologies: American Tropical Medicine, Race, and Hygiene in the Philippines |
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Andrews, Kehinde |
The New Age of Empire: How Racism and Colonialism Still Rule the World |
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Antia, Noshir |
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| Anya, Ike | |
| Arole, Rajanikant & Mabelle | Jamkhed: A Comprehensive Rural Health Project |
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Armytage, Rosita |
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Atkinson, Anthony |
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Baker, Josephine |
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Bang, Rani |
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Banerjee, Abhijit & Duflo, Esther |
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Banerjee, Abhijit & Duflo, Esther |
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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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Barry, John |
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| Bass, Emily | To End A Plague |
| Beard, Mary | Women & Power: A Manifesto |
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Behrman, Greg |
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Benatar, Solomon |
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Benjamin, Ruha |
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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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Black, Benjamin |
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Bollyky, Thomas |
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Brauman, Rony |
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Breihl, Jaime |
Critical Epidemiology and the People's Health
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| Bresnahan, Andrew & Brindamour, Mahli & Charles, Christopher | Upstream Medicine: Doctors for a Healthy Society |
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Brown, Damien |
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Brown, Jasmine |
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Budabin, Alexandra & Richey, Lisa Ann |
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Buse, Kent & Mays, Nicholas & Walt, Gill |
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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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Capua, Ilaria |
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Celi, Leo Anthony & Majumder Maimuna & Ordonez, Patricia & Osorio, Juan Sebastian & Paik, Kenneth & Somai, Melek |
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Chambers, Robert |
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Chigudu, Simukai |
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Cleghorn, Elinor |
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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, Angela |
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| Davis, Meg | |
| Davis, Mike | |
| de Haan, Arjan | |
| Deaton, Angus | The Great Escape-Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality |
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Desowitz, Robert |
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| Diab, Jasmin Lilian | Dignity in Movement: Borders, Bodies and Rights |
| Dionne, Kim Yi |
Doomed Interventions: The Failure of Global Responses to AIDS in Africa |
| Downs, Jim | Maladies of Empire: How Colonialism, Slavery, and War Transformed Medicine |
| Doyal, Lesley & Pennell, Imogen | The Political Economy of Health |
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Dubos, Rene |
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Dutt, Barkha |
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Dye, Christopher |
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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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Enkh-Amgalan, Handaa |
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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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Farrar, Jeremy & Ahuja, Anjana |
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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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| Galea, Sandro | The Contagion Next Time |
| Gates, Bill | |
| 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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Gehl, Lynn |
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George, Rose |
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| Ghosh, Amitav | |
| Giridharadas, Anand | Winners Take All |
| Gilmore, Ruth Wilson | |
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Glassman, Amanda & Temin, Miriam |
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Goodall, Jane & Abrams, Douglas |
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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 Security |
| Gostin, Lawrence | Global Health Law |
| Green, Monica (editor) |
Pandemic Disease in the Medieval World: Rethinking the Black Death |
| Hannah-Jones, Nikole (editor) | The 1619 Project |
| Harman, Sophie | Global Health Governance |
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Harris, Joseph |
Achieving Access: Professional Movements and the Politics of Health Universalism |
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Harrison, Gordon |
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| Hernandez, Daisy |
The Kissing Bug: A True Story of a Family, an Insect, and a Nation's Neglect of a Deadly Disease |
| Hernandez, Jessica |
Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes through Indigenous Science |
| Hewlett, Barry |
Ebola, Culture and Politics: The Anthropology of an Emerging Disease
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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 |
| Hotez, Peter |
Preventing the Next Pandemic: Vaccine Diplomacy in a Time of Anti-science |
| Hujo, Katja & Carter, Maggie | Between Fault Lines And Front Lines |
| Hunleth, Jean | Children as Caregivers: The Global Fight against Tuberculosis and HIV in Zambia |
| Hymes, Robert & Green, Monica |
New Evidence for the Dating and Impact of the Black Death in Asia |
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Jain, Yogesh & Sarah Nabia (editors) |
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Johnson, Stephen |
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Johnson, Stephen |
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic |
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Kabat, Geoffrey |
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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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Keshavjee, Salmaan |
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Khan, Themrise; Kanakulya Dickson; Maïka Sondarjee |
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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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Krishnan, Vidya |
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Kucharski, Adam |
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Labonte, Ronald & Ruckert, Arne |
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Lachenal, Guillaume |
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Laharia, Chandrakant; Kang, Gagandeep & Guleria, Randeep |
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Lakoff, Andrew |
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Lamb, Christina |
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Levin, Cynthia Changyit |
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Lewis, Michael |
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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 |
| Loomis, Joshua |
Epidemics: The Impact of Germs and Their Power over Humanity |
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Lougheed, Kathryn |
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Luhrmann, TM |
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MacIntyre, Raina |
Dark Winter: An insider’s guide to pandemics and biosecurity |
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Madan, TN |
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Marmot, Michael |
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| Marya, Rupa & Patel, Raj | Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice |
| Maskalyk, James | Six Months in Sudan |
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Mayblin, Lucy |
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Maynard, Robin & Leanne Betasamosake Simpson |
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Maxmen, Amy |
Ebola's Unpaid Heroes: How billions in aid skips over those at the frontline |
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Maynard, Robyn & Leanne Betasamosake Simpson |
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Mazzucato, Mariana & Collington, Rosie |
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Mbali, Mandisa |
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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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McInnes, Colin; Lee, Kelley & Youde, Jeremy (editors) |
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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 |
Unmasked: COVID, Community, and the Case of Okoboji
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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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Messac, Luke |
No More to Spend: Neglect and the Construction of Scarcity in Malawi's History of Health Care |
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Metzl, Jonathan |
Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America's Heartland |
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Mialon, Melissa |
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Minn, Pierre |
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Mohapatra, Seema & Wiley, Lindsay |
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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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Myers, Samuel & Frumkin, Howard |
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Nabhan, Chadi |
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Nattrass, Nicoli |
Mortal Combat: AIDS Denialism and the Struggle for Antiretrovirals in South Africa |
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Neely, Abigail |
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Nguyen, Eric & Burman, Scott |
White Savior (Comic) |
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Nott, David |
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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 |
| Nundy, Shantanu | Care After Covid |
| 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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Osmundson, Joseph |
Virology: Essays for the Living, the Dead, and the Small Things in Between |
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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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Pearlman, Wendy |
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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, ALAMES, Viva Sud, Sama |
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| Phillips, Ben | How To Fight Inequality And Why That Fight Needs You |
| Picard, Andre | Matters of Life and Death |
| Picard, Andre | Neglected No More |
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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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Raworth, Kate |
Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist |
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Ray, Victor |
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Reddy, KS |
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Reid, Nova |
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Richardson, Eugene |
Epidemic Illusions: On the Coloniality of Global Public Health |
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Robin, Marie-Monique |
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Rodney, Walter |
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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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Roy, Victor |
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Riley, James |
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Rukmini, S |
Whole Numbers and Half Truths: What Data Can and Cannot Tell Us About Modern India |
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Russell, Sharman Apt |
Within Our Grasp: Childhood Malnutrition Worldwide and the Revolution Taking Place to End It |
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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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Sengupta, Amit |
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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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Shrime, Mark |
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Siddiqi, Sameen; Mataria, Awad; Rouleau, Katherine; Iqbal, Meesha |
Making Health Systems Work In Low and Middle Income Countries |
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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 |
Preventable: How a Pandemic Changed the World & How to Stop the Next One |
| Sridhar, Devi | The Battle Against Hunger |
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Stanley, Jason |
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Steinberg, Jonny |
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Stepan, Nancy Leys |
Eradication: Ridding the World of Diseases Forever?: Ridding the World of Disease Forever? |
| Strathdee, Steffanie & Patterson, Thomas | The Perfect Predator |
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Steere-Williams, Jacob |
The Filth Disease: Typhoid Fever and the Practices of Epidemiology in Victorian England |
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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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| Taiwo, Olufemi | |
| Taranath, Anu | |
| Thiong’o, Ngugi wa | Secure the Base: Making Africa Visible in the Globe |
| Thrasher, Steven |
The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide |
| Thunberg, Greta | |
| Tracey, Kevin | |
| Tripathi, Amrita, Abhijit Nadkarni & Soumitra Pathare | |
| Tumbe, Chinmay | |
| Varlik, Nukhet | |
| Venkat, Bharat | At the Limits of Cure |
| Venkatapuram, Sridhar | Health Justice: An Argument from the Capabilities Approach |
| Veeraraghavan, Rajesh |
Patching Development: Information Politics and Social Change in India |
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Verghese, Abraham |
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Verghese, Abraham |
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Vijayakumar, Gowri |
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Vince, Gaia |
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Vineis, Paulo |
Health Without Borders: Epidemics in the Era of Globalization |
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Vuong, Ocean |
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
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Walsh, Sinead & Johnson |
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Wald, Priscilla |
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Waldron, Ingrid |
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Walia, Harsha |
Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism |
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Walt, Gill |
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Warah, Rasna |
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Wardere, Hibo |
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Washington, Harriet |
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Webb, James |
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Weber, Leanne |
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Wendland, Claire |
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Wenham, Clare |
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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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White, Alexandre |
Epidemic Orientalism: Race, Capital, and the Governance of Infectious Disease |
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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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Wray, Britt |
Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis |
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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 |
| Yasmin, Seema | If God Is A Virus |
| Yengde, Suraj | |
| Youde, Jeremy | Global Health Governance |
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Zakaria, Rafia |
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Zinsser, Hans |
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Zurbrigg, Sheila |
Rakku's Story : Structures of Ill-health and the Source of Change |
List updated: March 2023
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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.