A social and cultural history of public health in Mexico during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The book offers a fresh take on the history of medicine and public health by shifting away from the history of epidemic disease and heroic accounts of medical men and toward looking at public health in a broader social framework. It shows how new public health policies were instrumental in the 'modernisation' of Mexico. Adds to a small, but fast-growing body of literature, on the history of public health in Latin America and other developing areas of the world.

Table of Contents

Urban Ideas and Projects for Mexico City: The Late Eighteenth Century; The Control of the Environment; The Expansion and Diagnosis of the City; The Modern City; The Conquest of Water; Index.

Author Biography

Born in Mexico City, Claudia Agostoni earned her Ph.D. in Latin American cultural studies from King's College London, University of London. She is currently a full-time researcher at the Instituto de Investigaciones Historicas at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and lectures in Latin American colonial history."