Hart (president, Socialist Health Association, Wales) examines the political economy of health care, focusing on the operations of the National Health Service in Wales, but also extending his analysis concerning the problems associated with the commodification of health care to more general applicability. He examines the roots of the NHS in 19th century workers' mutual aid societies, its transformation from a gift economy to a system suborned to the demands of the market, and considers how the NHS could once again be separated from the market and be fashioned according to the principles of democratic socialism. Distributed in the US by ISBS. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)