Reviews and Notes: Silent Travelers: Germs, Genes, and the Immigrant Menace
Reviews and Notes: Silent Travelers: Germs, Genes, and the Immigrant Menace
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评论和笔记：沉默的旅行者：细菌、基因和移民的威胁
DOI：
10.7326/0003-4819-122-8-199504150-00034
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发表时间：
1994
影响因子：
39.2
通讯作者：
W. Mcneill
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
W. Mcneill
沉默的旅行者：细菌，基因和移民的威胁。德国佬369页。纽约：基础图书，1994年。25美元关于移民对美国历史的影响，以及在国内外经济力量的推动下，经常面临宗教和社会偏见的连续移民浪潮如何塑造了我们的人口及其文化，已经写了很多。然而，很少有人提到，随着时间的推移，医学知识和公共卫生做法不断发展，并与社会经济趋势相互作用，从而促进了新移民融入人口的整个过程。克劳特先生是一位历史学家，也是移民的孙子，他承担了这项任务，用脱氧核糖核酸的双螺旋的形象来象征对健康的关注和对陌生感的恐惧之间的密切但不安的关系，这种关系继续影响着我们适应新移民的方式。他生动地介绍了来自海地的移民在艾滋病流行早期被确定为高危群体的方式，这一标签在发现人类免疫缺陷病毒感染后错误地徘徊。在这个当代的例子之后，克劳特追溯了从17世纪到现在移民和公共卫生的综合历史。在这个过程中，这本书描述了移民群体控制或预防传染病流行、促进健康教育和预防职业病的方法。前四章描述了世纪以前的流行病（海地人是1793年费城黄热病流行的目标）;世纪中期来自爱尔兰的移民和当时霍乱的发生;埃利斯岛公共卫生检查系统的建立;最后，关于公共卫生和所谓的本土主义之间相互作用的两种说法：19世纪90年代在旧金山弗朗西斯科发生的淋巴腺鼠疫导致了对中国人的检疫措施，以及1906年在纽约市发生的著名的伤寒玛丽事件。书的后半部分集中在特定的移民群体（尤其是纽约市的意大利人和犹太人）;他们的习俗、信仰和对健康和疾病的态度;以及这些特征与现有的医疗保健和公共卫生体系的相互作用。在整本书中，四个主题的发展：努力维护健康和表达本土主义的恐惧和偏见之间的相互交织的关系;随着时间的推移，在塑造公共卫生实践的医学进步的作用;政府和私人机构在应对移民压力的行动;以及移民群体基于不同的卫生、保健和疾病预防文化观点对此类行为的反应。这本书使信息丰富和有趣的阅读，特别是当它叙述了特定的流行病或公共卫生危机的故事。作品生动，尽管有时对本土偏见的批评相当尖锐。全文的语言是非技术性的，适合一般读者。历史和医学事实准确地提出，并附有69页的记录源注释和评论。特别令人感兴趣的是两个附录，其中列出了排除的医疗条件，这是1903年和1917年公共卫生服务指南的一部分。鉴于该书对移民和健康的广泛探讨，不能说它是全面的：它很少提到拉丁美洲群体，奴隶制和非洲裔美国人人口也没有提到。尽管如此，这本书提供了很好的见解，科学医学和公共卫生在移民政策的应用中已经成熟，一直受到普通人群中根深蒂固的社会和经济力量的影响。
Silent Travelers: Germs, Genes, and the Immigrant Menace Alan M. Kraut. 369 pages. New York: Basic Books; 1994. $25.00. Much has been written about the influence of immigration on the history of the United States, and about the ways in which successive waves of immigrants, driven by domestic and foreign economic forces and often confronted by religious and social prejudices, have shaped our population and its culture. Little has been said, however, about the ways in which medical knowledge and public health practices, evolving over time and interacting with socioeconomic trends, have contributed to the total process by which newcomers are assimilated into the population. Mr. Kraut, an historian and the grandson of immigrants, has undertaken this task, using the image of deoxyribonucleic acid's double helix to symbolize the close but uneasy relationship between concern for health and fear of foreignness that continues to color the manner in which we adapt to new arrivals. He introduces this with a vivid account of the ways immigrants from Haiti, early in the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome epidemic, were identified as a high-risk group, a label which wrongly lingered after the discovery of human immunodeficiency virus infection. After this contemporary example, Kraut traces the combined history of immigration and public health from the 17th century to the present. In the process, the book describes methods used among groups of immigrants to control or prevent infectious disease epidemics, to promote health education, and to prevent occupational diseases. The first four chapters describe epidemics before the 19th century (Haitians were targeted for the 1793 epidemic of yellow fever in Philadelphia); immigration from Ireland in the middle of the 19th century and the occurrence of cholera at that time; the establishment of systems of public health inspection at Ellis Island; and, finally, two accounts of interactions between public health and so-called nativism: bubonic plague in San Francisco in the 1890s, which led to quarantine measures against Chinese persons, and the famous episode of Typhoid Mary in New York City in 1906. The last half of the book focuses on particular groups of immigrants (especially Italians and Jews in New York City); their customs, beliefs, and attitudes towards health and disease; and the interplay of those characteristics with existing systems of medical health care and public health. Throughout the book, four themes are developed: the intertwined relation between efforts to safeguard health and expressions of nativism in fear and prejudice; the role of medical advances in shaping public health practices over time; actions by government and private institutions in response to immigration pressures; and the reactions of immigrant groups to such actions on the basis of different cultural views of hygiene, health care, and disease prevention. The book makes informative and interesting reading, especially when it recounts particular tales of epidemics or public health crises. The writing is vivid, although at times rather strident in its criticism of native prejudices. The language throughout is nontechnical and suited to the general reader. Historical and medical facts are accurately presented and accompanied by 69 pages of documented source notes and commentary. Of particular interest are two appendices which list excludable medical conditions, part of Public Health Service guidelines for health screening of immigrants in 1903 and 1917. Given the book's broad approach to immigrants and health, it cannot be said to be fully comprehensive: it makes little reference to Latin American groups, and slavery and African-American populations receive no mention. Still, the book provides excellent insights into the manner in which scientific medicine and public health have matured in their applications to immigration policy, influenced all the while by deep-seated social and economic forces within the general population.