Medicine and Public Health in Latin America: A History by Marcos Cueto and Steven Palmer (review)
Marcos Cueto and Steven Palmer set out to write an exhaustive history of medicine and health in Latin America and the result is impressive. There is no other such work available. It is authoritative in its knowledge of primary and secondary English, Portuguese, and Spanish sources, broad in its temporal and geographical scope, comprehensive in its overview of different interacting medical systems, and critical in its assessment of national, international, and global health initiatives. The two organizing concepts of the book, “culture of survival” and “health in adversity,” provide the framework to analyze the distinct exchanges, negotiations, and conflicts about health and disease that first emerged in the pre-Columbian era and continue to the present.