Article ID: CBB000740719

The Rise and Fall of the Medical Gaze: The Political Economy of Immigrant Medical Inspection in Modern America (2006)

unapi

In this paper I examine the mass medical inspections of immigrants to the United States from the 1890s through the 1920s. I show how, framed as it was not only by nativism and eugenics but also by national industrial imperatives and priorities, scientific medicine served dual purposes. On the one hand, the medical exam was a tool for managing cultural and biological threats to the nation. There were regional variations in medical inspections that reflected the politics of race. On the other hand, the medical exam played an important role in the process of building an unskilled, highly mobile labor force. The industrial demands of the nation provided a rationale for drawing and absorbing millions of European immigrants into the labor force. It was thus a distinct product of the political economy of immigration. It was this second function that characterized the exam for the majority of immigrants entering the nation.

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Article Davidovitch, Nadav; Zalashik, Rakefet (2006) Medical Borders: Historical, Political, and Cultural Analyses. Science in Context (p. 309). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB000740719/

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Authors & Contributors
Markel, Howard
Yamaan Saadeh
Sujani K. Reddy
Ash, Fred
Shin, J. H.
Weaver, Karol Kimberlee
Concepts
Public health
Emigration; immigration
Medicine
Disease and diseases
Medicine and culture
Science and culture
Time Periods
20th century
19th century
20th century, early
20th century, late
18th century
Places
United States
England
Argentina
Italy
Asia
Pennsylvania (U.S.)
Institutions
Illinois Central Railroad
United States. Public Health Service
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