Professor Goldberg’s research examines the role of health and healing in imperial expansion, nation building, and race formation in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Texas borderlands. Health concerns drove Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo colonization in Texas. Mindful of the health of the environment, colonists also grew attentive to the health of Texas inhabitants. They constantly articulated what behaviors fostered healthy and successful settlement and what behaviors threatened human bodies. In the process, Spaniards, Mexicans, and Anglos defined nonwhites’ everyday practices as medical threats to society.
