University of California Press Publication Date: January 1976 Hardcover ISBN: 0520028740

Since 1943 the popularity and legend of General Juan Domingo Peron have towered over the Argentine Republic. Yet until 1930 Argentina was widely regarded as the best example of democracy and prosperity on a politically turbulent and economically underdeveloped continent. The present collection of articles by American and Argentine scholars examines the thirteen critical years that separated the "old" Argentina from the "new" and made possible the rise of one of the most powerful dictators in Latin America.

In little over a decade wracked by depression and war, political democracy in Argentina collapsed and the landed aristocacy was restored to power; the traditional relationship between the British and Argentine economies deteriorated and satisfactory alternative was found; a generalized disillusionment and pessimism led to a fascination by intellectuals with authoritarian ideologies; a new "nationalistic" consciousness became increasingly evident in films, radio, and popular music; and social and demographic changes produced the constituency for a messianic populism.

Mark Falcoff is a resident scholar at AEI. Ronald H. Dolkhart is a professor at California State College, Bakersfield.