Natalia Priego

Science, Culture and Society in Mexico 1860-1940: the Contradictions of the Quest for Modernity Natalia Priego

Science has been one of the most powerful tools for the development of modern nations. However, since it has had a differential evolution in different cultures, its forms of transmission defined the ways in wich it was implanted in different societies. This book explores, through the Mexican example, the first attempt to embody modern microbiology by a Latin American country. It shows how a combination of political, economic and personal interests sometimes came to overshadow the process. The demonised Porfirio Diaz (president of Mexico 1880- 1911) and his political circle played a critical role in this process. Dictatorship, Revolution, personal animosities and scientific naivety became important features of the game, to the advantage of European countries (principally Great Britain, France and Germany) which always found ways to preserve their supremacy over 'the others', that is those other trying to be 'modern like the Europeans'. This work is addresed to historians and sociologists of science, historians of Latin America, and every person interested in cultural colonialism, the transmission of knowledge, and the history of Mexico.