Technology and the Search for Progress in Modern Mexico

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.

Author: Edward Beatty
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 05/01/2015
Pages: 360
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.80d
ISBN13: 9780520284906
ISBN10: 0520284909
BISAC Categories:
- History | Latin America | Mexico
- Social Science | Sociology | General
- History | Social History

About the Author
Edward Beatty is Associate Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame and the author of Institutions and Investment: The Political Basis of Industrialization in Mexico before 1911.