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Helm, 1986, 278 pages. Price (UK) f17.95. ISBN 0 7099 4221 4.This book contains a series of ten papers on the theme of race and health, and the need for provision of health services for ethnic minorities. This is a field of increasing importance which has to date been little researched by a number of different disciplines. This volume has contributions both from medicine and sociology, but the majority of papers are written by medical geographers.The first part of the book explores the aetiology of racial differentials in health. The main paper in this section examines at length the arguments and evidence of biological determinism versus environmental forces+oncluding that 'racial inequality in health is a basic feature of social stratification in todays world:-it reflects the underlying class structure of capitalism'.The second paper examines ethnic differences in disease from an epidemiological perspective, with emphasis on the methodological difficulties of studying immigrant groups. The final paper examines research policies on race and health ethnicity, arguing that race relations sociology has focused on culture and failed to address race o r racism.The second section of the book contains papers on ethnic minority needs and their uptake and provision of services. These include papers from Denmark, South Africa and the US. These vary from statistical analyses of hospital utilization rates, to the use of geographical methodology to investigate spatial patterning of mental disorders among ethnic minorities. The book concludes with a chapter by the editors on initiatives in planning and policy for the health of ethnic minorities.This book is difficult to read, mainly because of a large number of authors with different styles, some of them extremely tortuous and jargonistic. It cannot be assumed that it would be readily suitable for a wide range of disciplines, since certain of the contributions are highly technical and inadequately explained. There is both repetition and confusion. It would benefit considerably from a reduction in its overall length.Overall, it could be critized for its very depersonalized view of what is a very personal issue; and the contribution by Donovan on black people's perceptions of health, although welcome, is insufficient to redeem it totally.

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