The Argentina reader

This anthology gathers writing that centers the experiences of Indigenous Argentines, laborers, women, and Black Argentines, groups that standard accounts of the country tend to pass over. It also includes texts by and about national leaders such as José de San Martín and Juan Perón. Alongside these, readers will find work by writers and social thinkers who are little known outside Argentina, placed beside pieces by Jorge Luis Borges, Ricardo Piglia, and Julio Cortázar.

The collection traces the country from the Spanish colonial period through the nation-building years that followed independence from Spain in 1810. It then follows the economic expansion and cultural transformation that, by around 1900, had made Argentina the most modern nation in Latin America.

Most of the material concerns the twentieth century. Selections examine the popular mobilizations that gave rise to Peronism, the revolutionary hopes of the 1960s and 1970s, and the 1976 to 1983 dictatorship, along with the culture of terror and resistance that surrounded it. The final sections turn to the mixed and unsettling effects of neoliberalism and the new global economy.