The Transnational Formation of a Healthy Nation: Uruguayan Travelling Reformers in the Early 20th Century (1905–1931)

Abstract

Introduction: This study traces the different forms of trans- and international interactions of the Uruguayan public health reformers in the first three decades of the 20th century (1905–1931) and proposes to analyze these interactions regarding the factors that facilitated them, the purposes they followed, and the meanings which the reformers attributed to their travels and missions. Development: The analysis of this study is divided into five sections. The first section provides a thorough literature review of the transnational perspectives on health, welfare, and labor policies in early twentieth-century Uruguay, followed by a second section that introduces this study’s main group of actors—Uruguayan health reformers attached to key state institutions—and identifies the different forms of their transnational interaction. Three analytical sections follow, which take a closer look in turn at the reformers’ participation in international conferences, their individual study tours to specific institutions in Europe and the Americas, and individual participation in a collective study tour organized by the League of Nations Health Organization (INHO). Conclusion: This study ends with a summary of the findings, examines their relation to the existing literature, and provides an outlook toward further questions to explore.

Keywords

• Uruguay
• public health
• history, 20th century
• physicians