Epidemic Invasions: Yellow Fever and the Limits of Cuban Independence, 1878-1930

Front Cover
University of Chicago Press, Nov 15, 2009 - Medical - 200 pages

In the early fall of 1897, yellow fever shuttered businesses, paralyzed trade, and caused tens of thousand of people living in the southern United States to abandon their homes and flee for their lives. Originating in Cuba, the deadly plague inspired disease-control measures that not only protected U.S. trade interests but also justified the political and economic domination of the island nation from which the pestilence came. By focusing on yellow fever, Epidemic Invasions uncovers for the first time how the devastating power of this virus profoundly shaped the relationship between the two countries.

Yellow fever in Cuba, Mariola Espinosa demonstrates, motivated the United States to declare war against Spain in 1898, and, after the war was won and the disease eradicated, the United States demanded that Cuba pledge in its new constitution to maintain the sanitation standards established during the occupation. By situating the history of the fight against yellow fever within its political, military, and economic context, Espinosa reveals that the U.S. program of sanitation and disease control in Cuba was not a charitable endeavor. Instead, she shows that it was an exercise in colonial public health that served to eliminate threats to the continued expansion of U.S. influence in the world.

 

Contents

1 Disease and Empire
1
2 The PreOccupation with Cuba
11
Initial Sanitation Reforms in Cuba
31
4 The Hunt for the Mosquito
55
5 The Mosquito Threatens Independence
73
6 The Limits of Domination
97
7 Conclusions
117
Notes
125
Bibliography
165
Index
185
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Epidemic Invasions: Yellow Fever and the Limits of Cuban Independence, 1878-1930
Mariola Espinosa
No preview available - 2009
Epidemic Invasions: Yellow Fever and the Limits of Cuban Independence, 1878-1930
Mariola Espinosa
No preview available - 2009
Epidemic Invasions: Yellow Fever and the Limits of Cuban Independence, 1878-1930
Mariola Espinosa
No preview available - 2009

Common terms and phrases

Adjutant American Annual Report Atlanta Constitution August Board of Health Carlos Finlay Chief Sanitary Officer City of Havana colonial Congress Cuban government deaths disinfection Division of Cuba efforts Elihu Root fever in Cuba fever in Havana File Finlay Fiscal Gorgas Papers Government Printing Office Governor of Cuba Health and Marine-Hospital Hench Walter Reed Ibid infection island Jesse Lazear June Lazear Leonard Wood Letters Received low fever Magoon Marine-Hospital Service Matanzas Medical Medicine MGC/RG Military Governor mosquito nonimmune occupation government October Orleans Platt Amendment ports public health quarantine Reed Yellow Fever Report of Provisional Republic of Cuba Sanidad y beneficiencia sanitary condition sanitation clause Santiago de Cuba September southern Spanish Supervising Surgeon-General tion Tomás Estrada Palma U.S. Army U.S. domination U.S. government U.S. military U.S. occupation U.S. South University Press USMHS Walter Reed Yellow Walter Wyman Washington William Yellow Fever Collection Yellow Fever Commission Yellow Fever Epidemic York

About the author (2009)

Mariola Espinosa is assistant professor of history and director of Latino and Latin American Studies at Southern Illinois University.

Bibliographic information

TitleEpidemic Invasions: Yellow Fever and the Limits of Cuban Independence, 1878-1930
AuthorMariola Espinosa
Editionillustrated
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press, 2009
ISBN0226218139, 9780226218137
Length200 pages
Subjects ›  › 

History / Caribbean & West Indies / General
History / United States / 19th Century
History / United States / 20th Century
Medical / General
Medical / History
  
Export CitationBiBTeX EndNote RefMan