Electrifying Mexico : University of Texas Press : 9781477328255 : 1477328254 : 12 Sep 2023 : Winner, The Alfred B. Thomas Book Award, Southeastern Council of Latin American Studies (SECOLAS), 2022 Winner, The Bolton-Johnson Prize, Conference on Latin American History (CLAH), 2022 Co-winner, Best Book in Non-North American Urban History, Urban History Association, 2022 Many visitors to Mexico City's 1886 Electricity Exposition were amazed by their experience of the event, which included magnetic devices, electronic printers, and a banquet of light. It was both technological spectacle and political messaging, for speeches at the event lauded President Porfirio Díaz and bound such progress to his vision of a modern order. Diana J. Montaño explores the role of electricity in Mexico's economic and political evolution, as the coal-deficient country pioneered large-scale hydroelectricity and sought to face the world as a scientifically enlightened ?empire of peace.? She is especially conc