Rhetoric of Health and Medicine Mar 2025 Open Access

Invisible Conquest: Medical-Military Topoi and the Yellow Fever Vector

Tori Thompson Peters University of Memphis

Abstract

At the turn of the 20th century, the United States was at war with two seemingly different enemies: the first was Spanish colonial rule in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. The second enemy was the yellow fever virus which wreaked havoc on the physical and economic welfare of the U.S. In this essay, I conduct a rhetorical history about how the discovery of the mosquito vector for yellow fever was memorialized as a triumph of U.S. medicine, and how medical-military topoi are deployed to describe “conquest” over the virus. I argue that the nonhuman mosquito vector enables retroactive discussion of victory over an invisible enemy, creating rhetorical space between the realities of U.S imperialism and medical violence. This rhetorical history has consequences for how medical-military topoi continue to influence ways that the U.S. uses border control in response to pandemics, particularly those with nonhuman vectors or origins.

Journal
Rhetoric of Health and Medicine
Published
2025-03-14
DOI
10.5744/rhm.2025.2228
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
OA PDF Gold
Topics
rhetorical criticism archival research editorial matter
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

References (0)

No references on file for this article.

CrossRef global citation count: 0 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Related Articles

  1. Pedagogy Oct 2025
    Contributors ↗
    modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism genre theory cultural rhetorics first-year composition writing pedagogy advanced composition creative writing writing across the curriculum graduate education two-year college service learning teacher development technical communication professional writing labor and working conditions archival research multimodality artificial intelligence literacy studies race and writing gender and writing disability studies literary studies editorial matter
  2. Rhetoric & Public Affairs Mar 2025
    Political Mourning: Identity and Responsibility in the Wake of Tragedy ↗
    Kimberley Hannah-Prater
    rhetorical criticism archival research social media race and writing gender and writing affect and writing editorial matter
  3. Pedagogy Jan 2025
    Contributors ↗
    rhetorical criticism graduate education teacher development professional writing archival research race and writing gender and writing disability studies literary studies editorial matter
  4. Rhetoric & Public Affairs Dec 2024
    American Kairos: Washington National Cathedral and the New Civil Religion ↗
    Randall Fowler
    rhetorical criticism discourse analysis argument archival research race and writing gender and writing public rhetoric body and rhetoric place and space editorial matter
  5. The Peer Review Sep 2024
    Honor Consultant Safety: A Community Contract for Better Writing Center Ethics ↗
    Liz A. W. Thomae; Aleena A. Jacob
    rhetorical criticism decolonial rhetorics writing pedagogy argument collaborative writing writing centers peer tutoring archival research social media race and writing gender and writing disability studies affect and writing literary studies editorial matter