An Ingenious Scheme: The Assembly of the International Engineering Congress of 1922 and Diplomatic Relations between Brazil and McGraw-Hill

Abstract In 1922, the Engineering Club of Rio de Janeiro hosted the International Engineering Congress. The organizing committee was headed by Verne Leroy Havens, editor-in-chief of the Spanish language Ingeniería International magazine which was published in the US by McGraw-Hill. The magazine's broad circulation was a framework through which a transnational perspective can help us to understand this organization and its social fabric as it stretched across the continent and created an enduring network of industrial relations and technical culture. For its part, the Engineering Club was compelled by court order and the Brazilian government to organize and host the event. Diplomatic and economic relations with the United States were at stake, together with those of the other major South American countries. The motives and maneuvering behind this Congress in these days before the Good Neighbor Policy can still be glimpsed.