In the late nineteenth century, Mexican citizens quickly adopted new technologies imported from abroad to sew cloth, manufacture glass bottles, refine minerals, and provide many goods and services. Rapid technological change supported economic growth and also brought cultural change and social dislocation.
Drawing on three detailed case studies—the sewing machine, a glass bottle–blowing factory, and the cyanide process for gold and silver refining—Edward Beatty explores a central paradox of economic growth in nineteenth-century Mexico: while Mexicans made significant efforts to integrate new machines and products, difficulties in assimilating the skills required to use emerging technologies resulted in a persistent dependence on international expertise.
Technology and the Search for Progress in Modern Mexico
About the Book
Reviews
"Beatty’s book is a groundbreaking study, a tour de force that should be required reading for anyone interested in economic development or the history of technology in the nineteenth-century Atlantic world."—American Historical Review
"This book establishes a model and a set of guiding questions for investigating technological development and adoption in modern Latin America. It should inspire scholars to conduct more detailed case studies, along the lines that Beatty sets out briefly in his three central examples. It will be of significant interest to economic historians and historians of technology at the graduate level and beyond."—Hispanic American Historical Review“Edward Beatty’s exemplary archival research and superb synthesis of disparate materials illuminate new aspects of Mexican economic history.”—Richard J. Salvucci, author of Politics, Markets, and Mexico's "London Debt," 1823–1887
"This is a scholarly, readable, and highly original study of a major—but neglected—historical topic: technology transfer and its impact on Mexico, ca. 1870–1920. Combining perceptive general analysis with three illuminating case studies, it will be essential—but also enjoyable—reading for those interested in Mexican and, more broadly, Latin American economic and social history."—Alan Knight, Professor Emeritus of the History of Latin America, Oxford University
Awards
- Friedrich Katz Prize in Latin American and Caribbean History, American Historical Association
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