In Fevered Measures; John Mckiernan-González examines public health campaigns along the Texas-Mexico border between 1848 and 1942 and reveals the changing medical and political frameworks U.S. health authorities used when facing the threat of epidemic disease. The medical borders created by these officials changed with each contagion and sometimes varied from the existing national borders. Federal officers sought to distinguish Mexican citizens from U.S. citizens; a process troubled by the deeply interconnected nature of border communities. Mckiernan-González uncovers forgotten or ignored cases in which Mexicans; Mexican Americans; African Americans; and other groups were subject to—and sometimes agents of—quarantines; inspections; detentions; and forced-treatment regimens. These cases illustrate the ways that medical encounters shaped border identities before and after the Mexican Revolution. Mckiernan-González also maintains that the threat of disease provided a venue to destabilize identity at the border; enacted processes of racialization; and re-legitimized the power of U.S. policymakers. He demonstrates how this complex history continues to shape and frame contemporary perceptions of the Latino body today.
#1778335 in Books Duke University Press Books 1996-08-22 1996-08-22Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.50 x .89 x 5.50l; 1.02 #File Name: 0822318679356 pages
Review
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful. Excellent and forceful analysis of LeninismBy M. A. KrulNeil Harding's "Leninism" is sure to be a classic for a long time to come. Harding; who holds the chair in political theory at the University of Wales; is a specialist in Lenin's political thought; and with this book has given a remarkably crisp; clear and insightful overview of Lenin's views and their development; as well as their upsides and their downsides.The book is not biographical; but content-based; so it first traces Lenin's thoughts in their theoretical development: from the early years of his education; to his activities in the early Party; the revolution of 1905; the analysis of imperialism; and so on. It is described how Lenin's faith in the advanced socialist position of the Western European parties and their leaders was wholly shattered by the SPD and SFIO's support of the imperialist World War; and how this led him to conclude that instead of being behind Kautsky and others in terms of theory; he was in fact the only one still adhering to it. Harding further describes how Lenin sought the explanation of this phenomenon in the ignorance of dialectics on the one hand; and the superexploitation of the colonies on the other hand; the profits from which fattened the working class to bribe them into reformism.Harding shows us how Lenin builds the party's program in exile; and how he stands alone in the radical nature of his April Theses when he returns and subsequently how Lenin succeeds in creating another revolution. The experiences of civil war; famine; foreign invasions; collapse of industry and infrastructure and so forth bring Lenin to militarize the Party and the state; and Harding describes Lenin's increasing hostility to dissent; ending in the infamous "Ban on Factions" in the early 1920s. But Harding also pays proper attention to the Nationalities Question; the creation of "Dialectical Materialism"; and last but not least; the relationship between Leninism and Stalinism.Harding's analysis is fair but fiercely critical; and he does not hesitate to accuse Lenin of many errors and flaws. Harding convincingly shows how Lenin's early sense of betrayal by the Western socialists was a definite step in his formation of a party that is rigorously opposed to moderation and reformism; and how the subsequent problems with managing a state under siege as well as Lenin's own theoretical dismissal of the importance of debate about politics (Lenin is quoted many times as stating that the less debate; the better the politics) combine to cause a deadly recipe for tyranny. Although Harding in my view overstates the continuities between Marx and Lenin as well as between Lenin and Stalin; this is perhaps a matter of nuance; Harding does an excellent job of explaining the way Lenin made Stalin's power grab possible; both in terms of protecting him personally and in terms of Party organization and suppression of all avenues of dissent and counterweight. Of course he also doesn't neglect to mention Lenin's reconsideration of these tactics in the last months of his life; where he sends out letters imploring Party leaders to remove Stalin from his post and to reform the Party organization. Unfortunately; the recipients of these letters were Zinoviev; Kamenev and Trotsky; and none of them did anything about it - and within twenty years; all three would be dead by Stalin's orders.Overall; this is a concise; to-the-point; and admirably well-written book on Lenin's theory; its strengths and particularly its faults; and it deserves a wide reading among anyone interested in politics or history. I recommend to read this in combination with Lewin's Lenin's Last Struggle (Ann Arbor Paperbacks for the Study of Russian and Soviet History and Politics); which gives a more positive supplement to this book.
