Driving strongly correlated electron systems far-from-equilibrium can lead to fundamentally new many-body phenomena that are thermally inaccessible. In this talk, I will describe a series of recent experiments that leverage ultrafast optical spectroscopic techniques to uncover transient properties of correlated insulators driven by intense electromagnetic fields. By tailoring the characteristics of the electromagnetic field, I will show how different out-of-equilibrium phenomena can be selectively realized. In particular, I will highlight the control of magnetic order using resonant driving, the nonlinear production of electron-hole pairs via off-resonant driving, and coherent “Floquet” engineering of electronic band structures and resultant optical properties via far off-resonant driving.