My next book recovers the ways audible elements of everyday life—including those produced by man-made objects, animals, the human body, and natural phenomena—tempered society in the late eighteenth century. As a category of analysis, sound has gone unnoticed in early modern historiography weary of delving into a subject that predates modern recordings, a pattern that has essentially rendered the past mute. My research weaves manuscript sources including royal decrees, criminal records, petitions, and correspondence with material objects including paintings, musical instruments, bells, and firearms to reconstruct the sonic elements of Mexico City, the New World’s oldest and most important metropolis, during a turbulent era that witnessed widespread rioting, racial tension, and changing gender norms.