The Spirit Level - Book of the Year

Submitted 24 November 2009

On Sunday, The Observer asked a selection of novelists, critics, politicians, historians and others for their Books of the Year.

Politicians Ken Livingstone and Roy Hattersley, and historian Tristram Hunt all chose The Spirit Level.

Roy Hattersley commented:

The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett (Allen Lane) confirms, scientifically, what social democrats have always hoped was true: the better-off have much to gain from redistribution of wealth, since the more equal societies are spared much of the social evil that afflicts modern society. The confirmation that morality and expediency do coincide comes as a great relief in a disturbing year.