AbstractThe AIDS crisis has aroused considerable interest in the critical examination of public health. Much of this work has come from the perspective of ‘cultural analysis’, combining postmodernist theories with the politics of radical pluralism’. This work constitutes a rejection of Marxist state theory, and indeed has directed attention away from the state as an object of inquiry. This article is a response to ‘cultural analysis’, which uses an historical examination of public health in Canada to shows the ways in which it has been oriented around the state, reflecting the character and limits of soci