Science Under Adversity
Latin American Medical Researchers of the Early Twentieth Century
Will be published approx. on 22. December 2026
Book
Hardback
232 pages
978-0-8229-4914-5 (ISBN)
Description
Science under Adversity argues that the Global South served as a dynamic arena of scientific innovation, circulation, and international collaboration. In this richly detailed history of the development of Latin American physiology in the early- to mid-twentieth century, Marcos Cueto shows that productive tensions between doctors and scientists in Argentina, Mexico, and Peru and their counterparts at US research centers and philanthropies shaped the life sciences in the region. Latin American physiologists took part in networks of scientific power that dictated distinctive styles of laboratory research and strategies. By tracing the trajectories, challenges, and overlooked figures who shaped these developments, the book highlights the crucial role of the global circulation of academic science in consolidating the modern life sciences-and reveals how Latin American researchers confronted asymmetries while redefining what it meant to be modern, universal, and simultaneously rooted in local realities. In doing so, it contributes to broader historiographical debates on the geopolitics of knowledge, demonstrating that scientific modernity itself was shaped through unequal yet mutually constitutive exchanges.
Reviews / Votes
This masterful and captivating study redefines science as a modern, universal, and yet locally rooted endeavor under adversity. Drawing on rich archival material, Marcos Cueto dismantles the linear narratives of scientific modernization and uncovers the hidden dynamics of scientific practice, discourse, and paradigms in three Global South nations long obscured by dominant accounts of scientific development. -- Claudia Agostoni, Instituto de Investigaciones Historicas, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico Powerful, inspiring, and crisply argued, Science Under Adversity showcases how Latin American researchers produced innovative research while negotiating the global scientific order. Whereas most histories of global medicine are overdetermined by the archives of the Rockefeller, Ford, and Guggenheim Foundations, Marcos Cueto centers the experiences of Argentinian, Peruvian, and Mexican physicians as they forged transnational research communities, advocated for collaboration and autonomy, and navigated political challenges and geopolitical inequities. A timely call to action about how medical researchers past and present overcome discrimination and authoritarian attacks on science. -- Elizabeth O'Brien, University of California, Los AngelesMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Pittsburgh PA
United States
Illustrations
7 b&w
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-8229-4914-5 (9780822949145)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Marcos Cueto is professor of the history of science and health at Casa de Oswaldo Cruz in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and a researcher at the Instituto de Estudios Peruanos in Lima, Peru. He is the author or coauthor of four books, including Medicine and Public Health in Latin America: A History, which won the George Rosen Award from the American Association for the History of Medicine.