Katherine Hirschfeld is assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Oklahoma. She is the recipient of the Marjorie Shostak Award for Ethnographic Writing, and has had a photography exhibit, Havana: City on the Edge of Forever, on display at a number of universities across the United States.

"[I]t is surprising to learn in this ethnographic account by a US medical anthropologist that the Castro government has apparently been cooking the books.... [Hirschfeld's] idealistic preconceptions dashed by 'discrepancies between rhetoric and reality,' she observes a repressive, bureaucratized and secretive system, long on 'militarization' and short on patients' rights, with state-employed 'family doctors' responsible not only for health but also for exposing political dissent... [T]he author, resorting to historical documents, concludes that the regime did foster public health gains after 1959, but concomitantly manipulated both health statistics and the impact of earlier US involvement in Cuba to highlight the 1959 revolution's alleged successes. A revealing and persuasive glimpse into public health under socialism. Highly recommended." - Choice"

• 1: The Ethnographic Encounter; 1: Fieldwork; 2: Doing Research, Not Doing Research; 3: Dengue Fever: An Abrupt Change of Perspective; 4: Fearful Interlude; 2: History Revisited; 5: Reframing History; 6: Imperialism and Health in the Spanish-Cuban-American War, 1897-1902; 7: Caudillismo, Imperialism and Health, 1902-1909; 8: Caudillismo , Instability and Health Trends in the Platt Era, 1909-1933; 9: Health and Disease in the Gangster State, 1934-1959; 10: Revolutionaries in Power, 1959-; 11: Conclusions

Katherine Hirschfeld is assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Oklahoma. She is the recipient of the Marjorie Shostak Award for Ethnographic Writing, and has had a photography exhibit, Havana: City on the Edge of Forever, on display at a number of universities across the United States.

"[I]t is surprising to learn in this ethnographic account by a US medical anthropologist that the Castro government has apparently been cooking the books.... [Hirschfeld's] idealistic preconceptions dashed by 'discrepancies between rhetoric and reality,' she observes a repressive, bureaucratized and secretive system, long on 'militarization' and short on patients' rights, with state-employed 'family doctors' responsible not only for health but also for exposing political dissent... [T]he author, resorting to historical documents, concludes that the regime did foster public health gains after 1959, but concomitantly manipulated both health statistics and the impact of earlier US involvement in Cuba to highlight the 1959 revolution's alleged successes. A revealing and persuasive glimpse into public health under socialism. Highly recommended." - Choice"

• 1: The Ethnographic Encounter; 1: Fieldwork; 2: Doing Research, Not Doing Research; 3: Dengue Fever: An Abrupt Change of Perspective; 4: Fearful Interlude; 2: History Revisited; 5: Reframing History; 6: Imperialism and Health in the Spanish-Cuban-American War, 1897-1902; 7: Caudillismo, Imperialism and Health, 1902-1909; 8: Caudillismo , Instability and Health Trends in the Platt Era, 1909-1933; 9: Health and Disease in the Gangster State, 1934-1959; 10: Revolutionaries in Power, 1959-; 11: Conclusions

Katherine Hirschfeld is assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Oklahoma. She is the recipient of the Marjorie Shostak Award for Ethnographic Writing, and has had a photography exhibit, Havana: City on the Edge of Forever, on display at a number of universities across the United States.

"[I]t is surprising to learn in this ethnographic account by a US medical anthropologist that the Castro government has apparently been cooking the books.... [Hirschfeld's] idealistic preconceptions dashed by 'discrepancies between rhetoric and reality,' she observes a repressive, bureaucratized and secretive system, long on 'militarization' and short on patients' rights, with state-employed 'family doctors' responsible not only for health but also for exposing political dissent... [T]he author, resorting to historical documents, concludes that the regime did foster public health gains after 1959, but concomitantly manipulated both health statistics and the impact of earlier US involvement in Cuba to highlight the 1959 revolution's alleged successes. A revealing and persuasive glimpse into public health under socialism. Highly recommended." - Choice"

• 1: The Ethnographic Encounter; 1: Fieldwork; 2: Doing Research, Not Doing Research; 3: Dengue Fever: An Abrupt Change of Perspective; 4: Fearful Interlude; 2: History Revisited; 5: Reframing History; 6: Imperialism and Health in the Spanish-Cuban-American War, 1897-1902; 7: Caudillismo, Imperialism and Health, 1902-1909; 8: Caudillismo , Instability and Health Trends in the Platt Era, 1909-1933; 9: Health and Disease in the Gangster State, 1934-1959; 10: Revolutionaries in Power, 1959-; 11: Conclusions