This book assembles a wide range of explanatory perspectives on social inequalities in health. Everywhere in the world, those with less advantage die younger and suffer more illness than the wealthy. Decades of research have documented this reality and yet we lack a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms through which social circumstances ultimately influence the biological processes that lead to disease. Explanations have been proposed from various disciplines   economics, psychology, behavioral science, geography, and neuroscience   and each sheds light on parts of the overall process. But very few texts assemble these insights into an overall explanatory paradigm.Through a review of concepts and theories from a wide range of disciplines, the author outlines how these may be woven together to offer a more complete picture of how social influences  get under the skin  to affect health and disease.