Surgery and Salvation
The Roots of Reproductive Injustice in Mexico, 1770–1940
By Elizabeth O'Brien
336 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 4 tables
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Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4696-7587-9
Published: November 2023 -
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4696-7586-2
Published: November 2023 -
E-book EPUB ISBN: 978-1-4696-7588-6
Published: October 2023
Studies in Social Medicine
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Awards & distinctions
Judy Ewell Award, Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Studies
Honorable Mention, Thomas McGann Book Prize, Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Studies
2024 Best Book Award, Nineteenth-Century Section, Latin American Studies Association
Honorable Mention, 2024 Frances Richardson Keller-Sierra Prize, Western Association of Women Historians
Honorable Mention, 2024 Murdo MacLeod Prize, Latin American and Caribbean Section, Southern Historical Association
O'Brien illustrates how ideas about maternal worth and unborn life developed in tandem. Eighteenth-century priests sought to save unborn souls through cesarean section, while nineteenth-century doctors aimed to salvage some unmarried women's social reputations via therapeutic abortion. By the twentieth century, eugenicists wished to regenerate the nation's racial profile, in part by sterilizing women in public clinics. The belief that medical interventions could redeem women, children, and the nation is what O’Brien refers to as "salvation though surgery." As operations acquired racial and religious significances, Indigenous, Afro-Mexican, and mixed-race people's bodies became sites for surgical experimentation. Even during periods of Church-state conflict, O'Brien argues, the religious valences of experimental surgery manifested in embodied expressions of racialized, and often-coercive, medical science.
About the Author
Elizabeth O’Brien is assistant professor of history at the University of California, Los Angeles.
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Reviews
“A sophisticated analysis of reproductive surgeries in Mexico . . . grounded in theories of reproductive justice, reproductive governance, and obstetric violence.”—The Lancet
“Well written and coupled with excellent research, this is a great addition to the history of Mexico as well as the history of women, marginalization, and medical history. An excellent book that covers a lot of ground and is relevant in a number of academic settings.”—CHOICE
“O’Brien’s work is thoughtful towards the victims of obstetric and gynecological violence, past and present. This book is an essential addition for readers seeking to understand how a history of religion and politics can lead to coercive medical practices that affect women’s bodies and reproductive liberties.”—Reading Religion
"A stunning contribution to the history of gender, medicine, and race in Mexico and beyond. Elizabeth O’Brien has unearthed a wealth of original and exciting material that offers nuanced and compelling insight into the making of modern obstetrics."—Nora Jaffary, author of Reproduction and Its Discontents in Mexico: Childbirth and Contraception in Mexico, 1750–1905
"Exhaustively researched and analytically sharp, Elizabeth O’Brien’s exemplary scholarship demonstrates just how crucial the history of Mexican and Latin American surgical intervention is to our understanding of obstetric and gynecological violence. A brilliant, cogently argued book with immense contemporary relevance."—Karin Rosemblatt, author of The Science and Politics of Race in Mexico and the United States, 1910–1950
"Surgery and Salvation is a historical masterpiece that demonstrates the perilous reach and staying power of medical racism in reproductive medicine and will certainly resonate with those of us interested in dismantling it."—Deirdre Cooper Owens, author of Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology
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