Health, Hygiene and Sanitation in Latin America, c.1870 to c.1950

This Research Paper sets out to examine transitions within health care in Latin America between c. 1870 and c. 1950 and offers a preliminary synthesis. Whereas a powerful historiography has evolved over the past thirty years that strives to synthesise diffuse materials on the insertion of Latin America into the world economy and subsequent 'de-linkage', there are few attempts to summarise the historiography of social policy. Given the embryonic nature of the subject, the author is trying to avoid premature generalisation and excessive claims, and is fully conscious that more questions are raised than are resolved by this paper. A broad chronological canvas is adopted, which is useful in clarifying diversity within the continent, but can also obscure issues of periodisation. The first section enquires into the relationship between the genesis of a modern public health policy and the experience of tackling epidemic and endemic diseases, and reviews the motives behind ameliorative health measures undertaken by the state and business, especially foreign enterprise, and their significance. The second section investigates the interaction between external forces and domestic changes: both the role of an international voluntary agency in tackling prostitution and, by implication, venereal diseases; and the significance of missions from developed countries that aimed to raise an alertness to modern methodology and investigation in 'tropical medicine', to institutionalise public health laboratories, and to undertake 'campaigns' against targeted diseases. This section concludes with an analysis of a specific example of externally inspired innovation in hygiene and sanitation: the Panama Canal. There follows a section that uses the special case of Rio de Janeiro to elucidate problems of evolving a public health policy for cities; and from that vantage point looks at the beginnings of public health policy in the Brazilian countryside. The penultimate section looks at the diffusion of scientific knowledge, the limits to its impact and the resilience of Luso-Hispanic, Amerindian and Afro-Latin American traditions of healing and curing. The final section consists of notes on the nature of the relationship between levels of health and of nutrition and housing

Controlling the Big Stick: Theodore Roosevelt and theCuban Crisis of 1906

Theodore Roosevelt is unquestionably one of the giants of American political history. A veritable dynamo both in and out of office, Roosevelt was nothing less than a turn-of-the-century Renaissance man who combined a scholar\u27s keen intellect with a rough-and-tumble spirit of adventure. As this Nation\u27s twenty-sixth President, Roosevelt may be best remembered for developing his own corollary to James Monroe\u27s famous doctrine of 1823 and then using American military muscle to bring its tenets to life

First Stars III Conference Summary

The understanding of the formation, life, and death of Population III stars, as well as the impact that these objects had on later generations of structure formation, is one of the foremost issues in modern cosmological research and has been an active area of research during the past several years. We summarize the results presented at "First Stars III," a conference sponsored by Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics. This conference, the third in a series, took place in July 2007 at the La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico, U.S.A.Comment: 11 pages, no figures; Conference summary for First Stars III, which was held in Santa Fe, NM on July 15-20, 2007. To appear in "Proceedings of First Stars III," Eds. Brian W. O'Shea, Alexander Heger & Tom Abe