ABSTRACT
This chapter debates the historiographical perspectives that have dominated historical narratives of yellow fever in Latin America. It analyses the historiographical approach to yellow fever, particularly the one that takes for granted current medical knowledge and performs retrospective diagnosis an approach that could be named presentism in the historiography of yellow fever. The pervasiveness of presentism in the historiography of yellow fever in Latin America and the consequent selection of historical themes that resonate with historians' views of the fever and of science could explain how themes such as those mentioned above have been neglected. The bulk of the historiography revolves around the idea that yellow fever is intertwined with power relations. Historians have shown how the Rockefeller Foundation's (RF's) work on yellow fever was shaped not only by US economic interests but also by local politics. The involvement of the RF started with the Yellow Fever Commission sent to South America in 1916.
