عنوان

The civilizing machine :

(Number (ISBN

0803243804

(Number (ISBN

9780803243804

Number

dltt

Title Proper

The civilizing machine :

General Material Designation

[Book]

Other Title Information

a cultural history of Mexican railroads, 1876-1910 /

First Statement of Responsibility

Michael Matthews

Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item

xiii, 321 pages :

Other Physical Details

illustrations ;

Dimensions

23 cm

Series Title

The Mexican experience

Text of Note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 294 -309) and index

Text of Note

The discourse of development : the railroad debate of the early Porfiriato -- De viaje : elite views of modernity and the railroad boom -- Festivals of progress : the railroad ceremony -- The price of progress : popular perceptions of the railroad accident -- La loco-matona : the railroad in the popular and opposition press

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Text of Note

"In late nineteenth-century Mexico the Mexican populace was fascinated with the country's booming railroad network. Newspapers and periodicals were filled with art, poetry, literature, and social commentaries exploring the symbolic power of the railroad. As a symbol of economic, political, and industrial modernization, the locomotive served to demarcate a nation's status in the world. However, the dangers of locomotive travel, complicated by the fact that Mexico's railroads were foreign owned and operated, meant that the railroad could also symbolize disorder, death, and foreign domination. In The Civilizing Machine, Michael Matthews explores the ideological and cultural milieu that shaped the Mexican people's understanding of technology. Intrinsically tied to the Porfiriato, the thirty-five-year dictatorship of General Porfirio Díaz, the booming railroad network represented material progress in a country seeking its place in the modern world. Matthews discloses how the railroad's development represented the crowning achievement of the regime and the material incarnation of its mantra, "order and progress." The Porfirian administration evoked the railroad in legitimizing and justifying its own reign, while political opponents employed the same rhetorical themes embodied by the railroads to challenge the manner in which that regime achieved economic development and modernization. As Matthews illustrates, the multiple symbols of the locomotive reflected deepening social divisions and foreshadowed the conflicts that eventually brought about the Mexican Revolution."--

Popular culture-- Mexico-- History-- 20th century

Railroads-- Mexico-- Public opinion-- History-- 20th century

Railroads-- Mexico-- Social aspects-- History-- 20th century

Mexico, History, 1867-1910

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Number

Edition

Class number

Book number

Matthews, Michael,1978-

Date of Transaction

20140314111321.0

Cataloguing Rules (Descriptive Conventions))

rda

Electronic name

[Book]

Y