Radio in Revolution: Wireless Technology and State Power in Mexico, 1897-1938 (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780803268449)

Long before the Arab Spring and its use of social media demonstrated the potent intersection between technology and revolution, the Mexican Revolution employed wireless technology in the form of radiotelegraphy and radio broadcasting to alter the course of the revolution and influence how political leaders reconstituted the government.

Radio in Revolution, an innovative study of early radio technologies and the Mexican Revolution, examines the foundational relationship between electronic wireless technologies, single-party rule, and authoritarian practices in Mexican media. J. Justin Castro bridges the Porfiriato and the Mexican Revolution, discussing the technological continuities and change that set the stage for L痙aro C疵denas's famous radio decree calling for the expropriation of foreign oil companies.

Not only did the nascent development of radio technology represent a major component in government plans for nation and state building, its interplay with state power in Mexico also transformed it into a crucial component of public communication services, national cohesion, military operations, and intelligence gathering. Castro argues that the revolution had far-reaching ramifications for the development of radio and politics in Mexico and reveals how continued security concerns prompted the revolutionary victors to view radio as a threat even while they embraced it as an essential component of maintaining control.

Author: Joseph Justin Castro
ISBN-10: 0803268440
ISBN-13: 9780803268449
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Language: English
Published: 07/01/2016
Pages: 288
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.27lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.81d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 11/01/2016