TEHRAN – “Mind the Gap: An Evolutionary View of Health and Inequality” by Richard G. Wilkinson has been published in Persian.

Kargadan is the publisher of the Persian edition translated by Mohammad-Mehdi Hatef. The book was originally published in 2000. 

Inequality kills. Both rich and poor die younger in countries with the greatest inequalities in income.

Countries like the United States with big gaps between rich and poor have higher death rates than those with smaller gaps such as Sweden and Japan. Why? 

In “Mind the Gap”, Wilkinson provides a novel Darwinian approach to this question. He points out that inequality is new to our species: in our two-million-year history, human societies became hierarchical only about ten thousand years ago. 

Because our minds and bodies are adapted to a more egalitarian life, today’s hierarchical structures may be considered unnatural. To people at the bottom of the heap, the world seems hostile and the stress is harmful. 

If you’re not in control, you’re at risk. This is a penetrating analysis of patterns of health and disease that has implications for social policy. 

Wilkinson concludes that rather than relying on more police, prisons, social workers or doctors, we must tackle the corrosive social effects of income differences at their roots. 

Wilkinson has played a formative role in international research and his work has been published in 10 languages. 

He studied economic history at the London School of Economics before training in epidemiology and is Professor Emeritus at the University of Nottingham Medical School and Honorary Professor at University College London. 

Photo: Front cover of the Persian edition of Richard G. Wilkinson’s book “Mind the Gap”.

MMS/YAW