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Marriage of Convenience
Rockefeller International Health and Revolutionary Mexico
Anne-Emanuelle Birn
In January 1921, after a decade of bloody warfare, Mexico's new government found an unlikely partner in its struggle to fulfill the Revolution's promises to the populace. An ambitious philanthropy, born of the wealth of America's most notorious capitalist, made its way into Mexico by offering money and expertise to counter a looming public health crisis. Why did the Rockefeller Foundation and Revolutionary Mexico get together, and how did their relationship last for 30-plus years amidst binational tensions, domestic turmoil, and institutional soul-searching?
Transcending standard hagiographic accounts as well as simplistic arguments of cultural imperialism, Marriage of Convenience offers a nuanced analysis of the interaction between the foundation's International Health Division and the Departamento de Salubridad Pública as they jointly promoted public health through campaigns against yellow fever and hookworm disease, organized cooperative rural health units, and educated public health professionals in North American universities and Mexican training stations. Drawing from a wealth of archival sources in both Mexico and the United States, Birn uncovers the complex give-and-take of this early experience of international health cooperation. Birn's historical insights have continuing relevance for the rapidly evolving world of global health today.
Anne-Emanuelle Birn is Canada Research Chair in International Health at the University of Toronto.
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DETAILS
55 b/w illustrations
446 pages
Size: 9 x 6
13 digit ISBN: 9781580462228
First published: 15/Aug/2006
Last reprinted: 15/Aug/2006
Price: 95.00 USD / 55.00 GBP
Imprint: University of Rochester Press
Series: Rochester Studies in Medical History
Subject: History of Science & Medicine
BIC class: AVH
STATUS: Available
Details updated on 18/11/2008
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Reviews
The value of this book is in the analysis and explanation of how cooperative international health developed during the 20th century. . . By offering insight into the effects of foreign influence, this book is valuable for those interested in international public health work, especially in light of the increased interest by schools of nursing and public health to offer global experiences for their students as well as those heading for work in the international setting of a nongovernmental agency. --Jeannine Uribe, U of PA School of Nursing in NURSING HISTORY REVIEW
An enlightening study of several generations' interactions between the Rockefeller Foundation's international health program and Mexican physicians, politicians, and administrators. Birn's book helps us track an evolving circulation of ideas, people, practices, and power and provides an invaluable -- if in some ways depressing -- insight into today's world of international health. --Charles E. Rosenberg, Ernest Monrad Professor of the Social Sciences, Harvard University
Birn gives a prescient, nuanced, and deeply intelligent account of the relationship between the Rockefeller Foundation and the state in shaping public health in post-revolutionary Mexico. Brilliantly written in a highly inviting style, this is an "absolute must-read" for academics, policy makers, and activists concerned with the past and increasingly complex face of global health in the future. --James Orbinski, associate professor of medicine and political science, University of Toronto, and former international president of Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (1998-2001)
This impeccably researched, extremely accessible volume sets a new standard for studies of international public health. Steeped in recent innovative scholarship on global health, transnationality, and the close and often incongruous imperial encounters that circumscribe philanthropic initiatives, Marriage of Convenience crafts a richly textured account of the Rockefeller's extended relationship with Revolutionary Mexico. It also teases out its formidable and checkered legacy for international health collaborations right up until the present. --Gilbert M. Joseph, Farnam Professor of History and International Studies, Yale University, and co-editor of Close Encounters of Empire: Writing the Cultural History of U.S.-Latin American Relations
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