Fevered Measures: Public Health and Race at the Texas-Mexico Border, 1848–1942

by John Mckiernan-González

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.

John Mckiernan-González is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Texas, Austin.

"In Fevered Measures, through dramatic case studies, John Mckiernan-González brings exciting new insights to the intersection of state formation, racial formations, and medical discourse. Using archives on both sides of the border, he complicates our analysis of federal and local dynamics, earning a place among the best of the new borderlands historians."—Sarah Deutsch, author of No Separate Refuge: Culture, Class, and Gender on an Anglo-Hispanic Frontier in the American Southwest, 1880–1940

"Fevered Measures remaps the border as a space in which ideas of race and nation take on new meanings in relation to the development of the state and science. The book serves as a superior model for analyzing and narrating the transnational flow of people, ideas, and policies."—Raúl A. Ramos, author of Beyond the Alamo: Forging Mexican Ethnicity in San Antonio, 1821–1861

Genres: History, Nonfiction

440 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2012

Reviews

[Kelly McLoughlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone should read this book

[Veronika · Rating 3 out of 5]

some parts were really well written and other parts were just unbearable to get thru. maybe the author liked certain topics more than others?

one annoying thing is that on page 189 he references a political cartoon by describing it instead of just inserting it in the text. would be fine but the citations he gives for the El Paso Times Spanish Edition was completely wrong, making it literally impossible to find the cartoon he was talking about, even by hand sorting thru archives of both english and spanish el paso newspapers around the dates he describes in his citation. i didn't check any other sources but this undermined the rest of his quoted text from the el paso times and was frankly, super annoying

[Teri · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Mckiernan-González examines the changing Texas-Mexico borderline due to public health concerns from 1848 through 1942 and the effects that health initiatives like quarantines and vaccinations had on Americans, African Americans, Mexican-Americans, and native Mexicans along that line. From El Paso to Corpus Christie, the borderlands were in constant flux due to outbreaks of diseases like smallpox, typhus, and typhoid. Medical personnel would draw lines between societal and racial groups and establish preventative health initiatives for those coming in and out of the country or across train lines. Not everyone agreed with the protocol on either side, which would at times lead to protests and riots.

Mckiernan-González shows how racial and gender bias affected the way specific groups of people were treated. Many of the people subjected to extreme forms of sanitization protocols and vaccination rules were local citizens crossing the border daily to work. Many were subjected to unnecessary re-vaccination, as well as physical and emotional abuse by border guards and medical personnel.

The book's prose is often disjointed and does not flow well throughout the books. Some chapters are more engaging than others but oftentimes the author's thesis doesn't completely come through or just leaves the reader confused, wanting to re-read searching for clarity. The subject matter is important and is well-researched, but at times is painful to read through.

[Valeria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting