In 1901, the year this book was first published, as Victoria lay dying, there were choices to be made. If there is one good reason why you should buy this book, it is to have a copy of a very rare item: a study which actually may have made a difference. The study was not written, of course, for the people of York as much as it was not written to be read by you one hundred years later. This was a book written (and at the time, of course, priced) for the chattering classes of its day and that was a very small tightly knit group of people. In the ‘blurb’ on the back of this edition it is claimed that this is the book that converted the young Winston Churchill (temporarily) to Liberalism while Lloyd George is supposed to have waved the book in the air during his public speeches in 1909 and 1910 (p.xliv). If books change the world, then this is one that did. If the world was changing anyway—this was a useful book for those who wished to change it in particular directions.

From a book review by Danny Dorling

International Journal of Epidemiology 2002;31:505-506
© International Epidemiological Association 2002