"Penicillin in the Hands of the Proletariat": Eugenics, Nationalism, and the Age of Antibiotics in Iraq, 1941–56

This paper examines the introduction of penicillin to Iraq by the British military during the early twentieth century, amidst the widespread application of antibiotics. It is concerned with how medico-textual sources on antibiotics influenced policy reconfigurations by governing powers in Iraq to address political and social dissent. The paper highlights the appropriation of antibiotic language to convey anti-communist rhetoric, particularly significant given Iraq's hosting of one of the Middle East's largest and most active communist parties. Additionally, this paper explores the political tensions surrounding pharmaceutical supply, with the disruptions caused by World War II enabling American companies to enter Iraqi markets. Against the backdrop of increasing anti-Communist rhetoric and anti-Soviet initiatives like the Baghdad Pact, antibiotic terminology was utilized to address both physical and ideological threats, framing pathogens and dissenting bodies as invisible adversaries threatening national and international security. Ultimately, the study argues that the widespread adoption of antibiotics coincided with socio-political discourse aimed at surveilling, controlling, and restricting the movement of individuals, particularly within the context of the Cold War era.