Peron: And the Enigmas of Argentina
A combination history of Argentina and political biography of Juan Domingo Peron, from the author of Trujillo: The Life and Times of a Caribbean Dictator. After a brief rundown of the
enigmas of Argentina (a nation that in 1928 ranked 8th in the world in per capita gross national product, but that today ranks 43rd) and of Peron (at once devious and straightforward: a
mild-mannered man who could yet condone the greatest violence; a sober pragmatist who could yet be a bombastic orator), Crassweller looks at the first 400 years of Argentine history.
Over it all, he defines a great rift that runs throughout--whether it be the dichotomy between the liberal democrats and the corporatist tradition, or that of modernism vs. traditionalism, or
nationalism vs. internationalism, or--in Peron's case--the rift between liberalism and national populism. Peron,
Crassweller notes, though he might be overshadowed in legend by his second wife, Evita, is still somewhat of a god-figure in Argentina (and one whose name will long be invoked for political
purposes there).
The author sees Peron's rise as a continuum with Argentina's history. It was, he writes, ""a renunciation of
spiritual kinship with Europe and a cry for the truly indigenous, for Creole reality and Creole myth. . ."" (Evita he sees as ""the Ignatius Loyola of Peronism, a one-woman Jesuit Order. . ."").
One of the better treatments of Peron and the land that spawned him.
Pub Date : 19/01/1986
ISBN : 0393305430
Publisher : Norton
Author : Robert D. Crassweller