In Twenty Years of Life, award-winning health journalist Suzanne Bohan exposes the disturbing flip side of the American dream: your health is largely determined by your zip code. The strain of living in a poor neighborhood, with sub-par schools, lack of parks, fear of violence, few to no healthy food options, and the stress of unpaid bills is literally taking years off people’s lives. Residents living in distressed communities die upwards of 20 years earlier than those living in wealthier neighborhoods often just miles away. But there is another way. Twenty Years of Life tells a success story that has resulted in the passage of more than 500 new policies and laws that are improving millions of resident’s lives.
Read Chapter 1: How Neighborhoods Kill below.
Katharine is the Publicity & Marketing Associate at Island Press.