Papers by Jonathan Ablard
Cold War and Healthcare - Peripheral Nerve: Health and Medicine in Cold War Latin America. Edited by Anne-Emanuelle Birn and Raúl Necochea López. Durham: Duke University Press, 2020. Pp. 376. $29.95 paper
The Americas, 2021
Asclepio-revista De Historia De La Medicina Y De La Ciencia, 2020
While researching my book on psychiatry in Buenos Aires in the 1990s, I commented to an archivist... more While researching my book on psychiatry in Buenos Aires in the 1990s, I commented to an archivist about the deplorable conditions in Argentina’s psychiatric hospitals. She quickly responded, “And the homeless in Washington, D.C., your hometown?” Indeed, ever since President Ronald Reagan twisted deinstitutionalization into a neoliberal nightmare, the city is notorious for its mad homeless. Many are black, and in the 1980s, when I was in high school, many had been just released from St. Elizabeths hospital.1
Despues del estallido de la Revolucion Rusa, las fuerzas armadas y la policia argentinas, los per... more Despues del estallido de la Revolucion Rusa, las fuerzas armadas y la policia argentinas, los periodicos establecidos y los politicos centristas y derechistas comenzaron a denunciar la amenaza de violencia revolucionaria de la izquierda ideologicamente diversa del pais. La mayor parte de la atencion academica se ha centrado en como estos grupos veian el potencial revolucionario de los sindicatos argentinos; Las huelgas se convirtieron cada vez mas en una amenaza para la seguridad nacional. Pero en ese momento, tambien habia una preocupacion generalizada de que, como en la Revolucion rusa, soldados, marineros y policias organizaban secretamente 'soviets'. Las teorias de conspiracion sobre el potencial insurreccional de los hombres 'bajo la bandera' eran comunes y cumplian una funcion importante para justificar una disciplina militar mas draconiana, La organizacion de clubes de oficiales secretos y organizaciones civiles paramilitares. Si bien muchos creian que estas c...
História, Ciências, Saúde-Manguinhos, 2021
This paper argues that many of the foundations and trends that led to the rise in obesity and oth... more This paper argues that many of the foundations and trends that led to the rise in obesity and other diet-related health problems in Latin America began to develop in the late nineteenth century. The tendency towards presentism in the nutrition transition literature provides a much abbreviated and limited history of changes in diet and weight. Whereas medical and nutrition researchers have tended to emphasize the recent onset of the crisis, a historical perspective suggests that increasingly global food sourcing prompted changes in foodways and a gradual “fattening” of Latin America. This paper also provides a methodological and historiographic exploration of how to historicize the nutrition transition, drawing on a diverse array of sources from pre-1980 to the present.
Rumors, Pescado Podrido and Disinformation in Interwar Argentina
Journal of Social History, 2021
This article identifies how and why Argentine political rumors were created, spread, and legitimi... more This article identifies how and why Argentine political rumors were created, spread, and legitimized by government officials, military officers and the press in the interwar years. In that period, the practice of what we now call “fake news”—known as pescado podrido (rotten fish) in Argentina for it poisons the one who hears or repeats it—became more common and took on international proportions. In Argentina, a variety of forces drove the increase in disinformation, including political instability, the rising (and later the banning) of the majoritarian Radical Party, elite anxiety about the threat of communism, and a long-lasting nationalist fear about the integrity of borders. Authorities and right-wing politicians were inclined to see any anti-government actions as linked to international communism and, in some cases, imaginary Jewish conspiracies. The article offers two case studies: One refers to the anti-Radical Party rumors, especially those spread in the days immediately befo...
‘Our Archaic System’: Debating and Reforming Military Justice in Argentina, 1905–35
Journal of Latin American Studies, 2020
The treatment of draft dodgers and miscarriages of justice by Argentine military courts provoked ... more The treatment of draft dodgers and miscarriages of justice by Argentine military courts provoked mobilisations by families, communities and the major political parties. An examination of the debates and discussions around these issues reveals a widespread sentiment that rarely questioned neither the right of the armed forces to draft young men nor the legitimacy of the armed forces. By adopting the language of patriotism and civic obligation, individual and community petitioners and politicians who represented them challenged the state's broad claim of power over the bodies of young men from a reformist position. Military justice formed a critical platform through which citizens debated the meaning of citizenship and the place of the armed forces in society.
Madness in Buenos Aires
Madness in Buenos Aires, 2008
“The barracks receives spoiled children and returns men”:Debating Military Service, Masculinity and Nation-Building in Argentina, 1901–1930
The Americas, 2017
In 1918 an anonymous conscript writing toLa Protesta, an anarchist paper known for its anti-milit... more In 1918 an anonymous conscript writing toLa Protesta, an anarchist paper known for its anti-militarism, complained about life in the Argentine navy. The military was a “school of vice” where everyone was reduced to a number and was subject to the most cruel and random subordination. The conscript fumed, “You even lose control of your hair.”
Instituciones Y Formas De Control Social En América Latina, 1840-1940: Una Revisión
Bedlam in the New World: A Mexican Madhouse in the Age of EnlightenmentChristinaRamosUniversity of North Carolina Press, 2022. 266 pp. $34.95 (paper). ISBN 978‐1‐4696‐6657‐0; 978‐1‐4696‐6656‐3 (cloth); 978‐1‐4696‐6658‐7 (ebook)
Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences
Christina Ramos's Bedlam in the New World: A Mexican Madhouse in the Age of Enlightenment... more Christina Ramos's Bedlam in the New World: A Mexican Madhouse in the Age of Enlightenment chronicles the history and patients of the Hospital de San Hipólito in Mexico City. This remarkable institution, founded in 1567 and in operation for more than 300 years, was the first hospital for the care of the mad in the Western Hemisphere. I only have praise for this stunning book, which is so lyrical that the prose often reads like poetry. The author's well-crafted arguments are accessible to audiences in both Latin American history and the history of medicine. Its crisp organization spans many topics, including institutional history, the arbitration of knowledge about madness, and the interplay between the Spanish Inquisition, crime, punishment, and confinement. The book intervenes perspicuously into the literature on pre-modern mental health. It also
Rumors, Pescado Podrido, and Disinformation in Interwar Argentina
Journal of Social History, 2021
This article identifies how and why Argentine political rumors were created, spread, and legitimi... more This article identifies how and why Argentine political rumors were created, spread, and legitimized by government officials, military officers and the press in the interwar years. In that period, the practice of what we now call "fake news"-known as pescado podrido (rotten fish) in Argentina for it poisons the one who hears or repeats it-became more common and took on international proportions. In Argentina, a variety of forces drove the increase in disinformation, including political instability, the rising (and later the banning) of the majoritarian Radical Party, elite anxiety about the threat of communism, and a longlasting nationalist fear about the integrity of borders. Authorities and right-wing politicians were inclined to see any anti-government actions as linked to international communism and, in some cases, imaginary Jewish conspiracies. The article offers two case studies: One refers to the anti-Radical Party rumors, especially those spread in the days immedia...
Journal of Latin American Studies, 2019
The treatment of draft dodgers and miscarriages of justice by Argentine military courts provoked ... more The treatment of draft dodgers and miscarriages of justice by Argentine military courts provoked mobilisations by families, communities and the major political parties. An examination of the debates and discussions around these issues reveals a widespread sentiment that rarely questioned neither the right of the armed forces to draft young men nor the legitimacy of the armed forces. By adopting the language of patriotism and civic obligation , individual and community petitioners and politicians who represented them challenged the state's broad claim of power over the bodies of young men from a reformist position. Military justice formed a critical platform through which citizens debated the meaning of citizenship and the place of the armed forces in society.
The American Historical Review, 2014
Social History of Medicine, 2009
Social History of Medicine, 2009
The limits of psychiatric reform in Argentina, 1890–1946
International Perspectives, 1800–1965, 2003
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Papers by Jonathan Ablard