The Inner Level: How More Equal Societies Reduce Stress, Restore Sanity and Improve Everyone’s Well-Being

In this detailed and wide-ranging book, Wilkinson and Pickett, British epidemiologists and authors of The Spirit Level, argue that income inequality causes a society “a greater burden of health and social problems.” These include anxiety (and its consequent negative health effects), social isolation, drug and alcohol dependence, “narcissism and self-aggrandizement,” and so on; the authors conclude that these ills can be ameliorated by decreasing income inequality. While they painstakingly present evidence of correlation between, for example, mass shootings or bullying and higher income inequality (or better well-being and more equality), their assertions about causation are more speculative. They also take something of a kitchen-sink approach, devoting entire chapters to ideas tangential to the main thesis, for example that environmental sustainability must be considered in tackling inequality. In the final chapter, they offer valuable suggestions on how to decrease inequality, such as worker representation on corporate boards, which seems an almost utopian goal in contemporary America but has been mandated in Germany since 1951. Though stylistically somewhat dry, with an academic slant toward statistics rather than illustrative anecdotes, this book will strongly appeal to readers interested in well-being, equality, or both. Agent: Sarah Scarlett, Penguin U.K. (Jan.)