In this updated edition, preeminent medical sociologist William C. Cockerham offers the most compelling case yet that stress, poverty, unhealthy lifestyles, and adverse living and working conditions can all be directly associated with illness. Of particular note in this revised edition are: updates on the power of social class to determine a person’s health and life span; deeper consideration of how the social construction of race matters for a person’s physical and mental health; new research on the role of lifestyles as a social determinant of health; and an analysis of the differential impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.