The Sociology of Health & Illness: Critical Perspectives - Softcover

First published in 1981, "The Sociology of Health and Illness: Critical Perspectives" has become an essential resource for anyone interested in health and health care.Fully updated, the eighth edition includes an all new section on the uninsured as well as 10 new readings examining topics such as the failures of health care reform, new trends in medicalization, the growing power of the drug industry and the determinants of media attention to disease. Provocative and wide-ranging, "The" "Sociology of Health and Illness" continues to provide students with an integrated analysis of the most important issues regarding health care today.

Peter Conrad is the Harry Coplan Professor of Social Sciences and Chair of the Health: Science, Society and Policy program at Brandeis University. He earned his doctorate from Boston University. The author of numerous books and journal articles on the sociology of health and illness, Dr. Conrad received the Leo G. Reeder Award from the American Sociological Association in 2004 for his distinguished contributions to medical sociology. His works include the award-winning "Deviance and Medicalization" (written with J.W. Schneider), the co-edited "Handbook of Medical Sociology, " Fifth Edition, and his newest book, "The Medicalization of Society, " published in 2007. "