Death, Disease and Disregard. A Review of Heather McCrea's <em>Diseased Relations: Epidemics, Public Health, and State-Building in Yucatán, Mexico, 1847-1924</em> (Albuquerque: U of New Mexico P, 2010)

Authors

  • Autumn Quezada-Grant Roger Williams University

Keywords:

death, disease, disregard, Yucatan,

Abstract

Diseased Relations is an impressive work succinct in its focus on the topic of public health history in the Mexican state of Yucatán. Adding to a growing body of scholarship on the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this book offers a new lens through which to consider the mechanics of state formation. In this turn to the study of disease and public health, McCrea pulls in the unfolding story of science’s understanding of the origin and spread of diseases and reflects upon the dialogue between national officials and state or local officials in the Yucatán. By choosing to focus on specific disease campaigns, McCrea extends the common discussion of state formation and casts it into a light of intimacy and personal level as she explores the ways in which disease prevention touched and changed the lives of individuals. Instead of viewing ‘nation-building’ through abstractions, she adroitly pursues the palpable and deadly topic of disease and efforts to combat epidemics as a clear implementation of the long-arm of the state into the private lives of individuals.

Author Biography

Autumn Quezada-Grant, Roger Williams University

Autumn Quezada-Grant es profesora asistente de historia en la Roger Williams University. Se doctoró por la Universidad de Mississippi en 2010 en historia latinoamericana. Su tesis doctoral versa sobre litigantes indígenas en Chiapas en el siglo XIX analiza la cultura legal y los patrones de negociación y pugnas entre los indígenas del altiplano y los la elite ladina. A la Dra. Quezada-Grant le interesan muchos campos de investigación, entre ellos, la América Latina moderna, la historia indígena, los temas social en sí, y los movimientos políticos. Actualmente trabajo en un libro que se titula Seasons of Discontent: Life, Labor and Litigation amongst Indians and Ladinos in Chiapas, Mexico, 1832-1911.

Published

2012-05-15

How to Cite

Quezada-Grant, A. (2012). Death, Disease and Disregard. A Review of Heather McCrea’s <em>Diseased Relations: Epidemics, Public Health, and State-Building in Yucatán, Mexico, 1847-1924</em> (Albuquerque: U of New Mexico P, 2010). A Contracorriente: Una Revista De Estudios Latinoamericanos, 9(3), 457–463. Retrieved from https://acontracorriente.chass.ncsu.edu/index.php/acontracorriente/article/view/380

Issue

Section

Reviews: Colonial and Modern Mexico