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The History of Argentina
Article in The History Teacher · May 2004
DOI: 10.2307/1555679
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Ronn Pineo
Towson University
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among Anglicans and that the Church of England was the Anglican Church. Finally, the
pictures have no captions and are often difficult to see and of poor quality, although this
could be the result of having only the advance reviewer copy at hand. Aronson's readers
will recognize that the entire truth about the Salem episode may always remain a mystery,
but he has provided an excellent means for young readers to begin to probe that mystery
for themselves.
University of West Georgia
Charles W. Clark
Atlas of American Military History, edited by James C. Bradford. New York:
Oxford University Press, 2003. 248 pages. $50.00, cloth.
In the average book store, one finds literally dozens of historical atlases. Most atlases are
arranged with a generally chronological focus, but some have a specialized focus on a
particular historical focus. Military history tends to be the most common theme among
those atlases with a historical theme. Military history is naturally suited for the purposes
of an atlas because military campaigns and battles simply cannot be properly understood
without the aid of maps. One of the best of these military history atlases, currently in print,
is the Atlas of American Military History. James C. Bradford, editor of the Atlas of
American Military History, is an associate professor of history at Texas A&M University
and the author or editor of a dozen books, including: Papers of John Paul Jones. ¡7477792 (1986); Command Under Sail: Makers of the American Naval Tradition 1775-1850
(1985); Captains of the Old Steam Navy: Makers of the American Naval Tradition. 18401880 (1986); and Admirals of the New Steel Navy: Makers of the American Naval
Tradition. 1880-1930(1990).
The nineteen chapters of this book are divided logically in a chronological fashion and
contain almost 200 excellent color maps. In addition, each chapter contains a brief history
of the conflict or period in question. Prominent historians, such as Carol Reardon,
Graham Cosmas, Alan Wilt, and Spencer Tucker, contributed the historical text for each
of the chapters. This book is quite current and even includes a brief discussion of the
American campaign in Afghanistan in 2001. As a teaching tool, this book would be most
useful in an American military history course, but I could also imagine using it as a
supplemental text in an American history survey course. I have nothing but positive
things to mention about this book and I wholeheartedly recommend it both for the general
and academic audience.
Independent Scholar
Alexander M. Bielakowski
The History of Argentina, by Daniel K. Lewis. New York, New York: Palgrave
MacMillan, 2001. 214 pages. $18.95, paper.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Argentina=s economy grew spectacularly as wheat farms and cattle ranches spread out across the flat, amazingly fertile. Pampa
grasslands, and rail lines funneled the bounty into the booming port of Buenos Aires. By
1930 Argentina boasted the seventh largest economy in the world and a per capita income
Reviews
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higher than Canada or France, and nearly as high as the United States. Among the envious
rang the wistful lament, "oh, to be as rich as an Argentine." Joined to Argentina's
economic success story was the early flowering of democracy. Argentina's Saenz Peña
law created an authentic system of universal male suffrage in 1912, well ahead of most
Latin American nations. Today Argentina's economy ranks seventy-seventh in the world
and its per capita income is one-quarter that of the United States. Political corruption,
election fraud, and repeated military coups have haunted the nation, and democracy has
floundered. From 1930 to 1983 every elected president save one was overthrown by the
military. In recent years all semblance of political order has at times fallen away: In the
space of two chaotic weeks in late December and early January 2001-2002 Argentina
went through ñve presidents. "Argentina," as the saying now goes, "has a wonderful
future behind it." The History of Argentina offers a superb account of the story of this
nation as it tossed away its economic lead and descended step by step into the madness of
the military's sociopathic 1976-1983 "dirty war," a killing frenzy directed against all
opponents, real and imagined.
This is a book of straight political economy. Given its brevity (at 214 pages, a model of
restraint in this day of one thousand page doorstops) Lewis takes almost no side excursions into social history, the history of women, culture, or the arts. But his time coverage
is comprehensive, traversing the years from the earliest inhabitants right down to 2001.
Making full use of the best recent scholarship, Lewis offers an elegant, nuanced, and
insightful narrative, pulling together an amazing amount of detail in crisp, intelligently
crafted prose. There are many highlights. Lewis does an excellent job explaining the
functioning of colonial Buenos Aires' illegal economy, built around smuggling and
bribes. The complexities of the stmggle for independence, for Argentina an especially
convoluted story, is deftly handled. Lewis is judicious and balanced with historical
controversies, for example providing evenhanded treatment of the towering figure of the
nineteenth century, dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas (1829-1845). Lewis carefully presents
both sides in the historiographical debate: Rosas the tyrant, Rosas the nation builder.
Never settling for dull political narrative, Lewis offers a penetrating look into political
life, capturing the spirit of the each era. For example, his treatment of nineteenth century
statecraft provides a clear sense of the wild political chaos of the age. Lewis certainly does
not take the political parties of this period very seriously, rightly depicting them as nonideological patron clubs for the elite. Likewise, he amply demonstrates the raw violence
employed by those trying to hold back the workers' historic drive for voting rights and
political reform during the tum of the last century in Buenos Aires. Lewis also does a very
good job explicating complicated topics, such as the merits of the various competing
economic development strategies enthusiastically adopted and subsequently abandoned
in the twentieth century, or the complex nature of Juan Perón's (1946-1955) political
support. Above all, Lewis does a masterful job in cutting open and exposing the mounting
threat of military nationalist extremism in Argentina, which grew quietly like a cancer
during the twentieth century. Carefully, chapter by chapter, he builds this story to its
dramatic, hideous, conclusion.In the end he refuses to settle for an easy explanation as to
why Argentina failed to build upon its prior economic success and create industrialization
and self-sustaining economic growth. Lewis demonstrates that many factors contributed
to this failure: extreme land concentration in the Pampa, an archaic agricultural sector,
rank favoritism in govemment development policies, political chaos and poorly conceived developmental plans, unfavorable world market conditions for Argentine exports
at critical junctures, and bad luck.
The History of Argentina would make an excellent choice for college teachers, either
as a case study text for introductory courses in modem Latin America, or as a core text for
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an upper division history course on the southem cone, (Of course David Rock's, Argentina, 1516-1987 is also still a splendid choice, although it is more than twice as long, and
does not cover the last 17 years,) Students will appreciate the leaming aids Lewis has
added: a detailed time line and a glossary of notable people and terms. Faculty will flnd
this book a wonderful refresher and great summation of recent scholarship on leading
developments in Argentine history,
Towson University
Ronn Pineo
Reporting Civil Rights: Part One: American Journalism, 1941-1963 and Reporting Civil Rights: Part Two: American Journalism, 1963-1973. New York:
Library of America, 2003, 996 and 986 pages, respectively, $40 per volume,
cloth.
These two volumes, part of the Library of America's superb American history series,
provide an extraordinary window onto the most significant social and political reform
movement in modem American history, the African-American freedom struggle. Starting
with A, Philip Randolph's 1941 plan (as described in The Black Worker, a union paper) to
organize a march on Washington in order to end discrimination in the military and in the
defense industry, and concluding with an autobiographical piece by Alice Walker (which
appeared in the New York Times in 1973), Reporting Civil Rights traces the way America's
newspapers and magazines covered the decades-long crusade. To suggest that these
volumes contain a wealth of fascinating material is to understate just how absorbing they
are. Indeed, both books overflow with gripping news accounts, compelling essays, and
moving reminiscences penned by the men and women (black and white) who witnessed—and in some cases, participated in—the unfolding campaign to end racial oppression in the United States, One is hard-pressed to find a dull entry in nearly two
thousand pages of material.
The books are replete, of course, with riveting accounts of the well-known episodes
from these years (the Brown decision, the Montgomery bus boycott, the crisis at Little
Rock, the sit-ins, the March on Washington), but time and again one is reminded that the
stmggle for racial justice included countless other stories less familiar, less grand, but
undeniably signiflcant, A 1945 piece by Langston Hughes, which appeared in the Chicago Defender (a leading black paper), considers the tribulations of a black man trying to
get a meal on a passenger train in Jim Crow America, Hughes describes his "adventures"
in dining cars south of the Mason-Dixon line, noting that southem whites obviously "did
not think that colored travellers ever got hungry while travelling, or if they did,,,they
were not expected to eat," But the distinguished writer was determined to eat just like any
white passenger. On a train out of Chattanooga, Hughes sought dinner, a service the
uncomfortable white steward was not inclined to provide, "Say, fellow, are you Puerto
Rican?" Hughes was asked, "No, I'm American," he replied. The steward persisted,
asking if Hughes was an "American Negro," In a loud voice, Hughes replied, "I'm just
hungry," and finally he received a menu and then a meal. In concluding, Hughes tells his
black readers to make "sure they eat in the diner," Even if you are not hungry, he
observes, it will help establish the right to do so; moreover, it "will be fun to see how you
will be received," As the piece makes clear, the battle for racial justice was waged on
many fronts (I, 68-70),
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