Contagions of Empire: Scientific Racism, Sexuality, and Black Military Workers Abroad, 1898-1948 Rachel Kauder Nalebuff Jocasta is just fifteen when

Jocasta is just fifteen when she is told that she must marry the King of Thebes

hinder and help each other find their place in a world they never made

An essential work that centers colonial and historical trauma in a framework for healing

Over the past ten years

Contagions of Empire: Scientific Racism, Sexuality, and Black Military Workers Abroad, 1898-1948 Rachel Kauder Nalebuff Jocasta is just fifteen whenFrom 1898 onward, the expansion of American militarism and empire abroad increasingly relied on black labor, even as policy remained inflected both by scientific racism and by fears of contagion. Black men and women were mobilized for service in the Spanish Cuban American War under the War Department's belief that southern blacks carried an immunity against tropical diseases. Later, in World Wars I and II, black troops were stigmatized as members of a