With El dinero no es todo: Compra y venta de sexo en la Argentina del siglo XX, Patricio Simonetto intervenes in the robust historiography of prostitution in Argentina and Latin America, a field pioneered by Donna Guy's book and enriched, in recent years, by the work of Tiffany Sippial, Katherine Bliss, Paulo Drinot, and Mir Yarfitz, among others. Simonetto writes a social history focused on Buenos Aires province; his attention to various cities, small towns, and rural areas is an unusual outlook in a field that has concentrated on sex work in specific urban areas. Although the title promises an analysis that encompasses the twentieth century, the book is primarily focused on the first half of the century; three out of the six chapters include the 1960s and brief references to the 1970s as part of the broader periods of analysis.
From 1875, under reglamentarismo, the Argentine state...