Kristen L. McCleary has written an intriguing study of how theater in Buenos Aires in the second half of the nineteenth century and the first two decades of the twentieth reflected and simultaneously shaped the city's social and political world. She also argues that theater helped define the physical world of the city. She posits that scholars have underestimated the impact on Buenos Aires of the theater, which during this period, as she points out, was the most popular form of entertainment.
The book is divided into seven chapters and uses both statistics and analysis of plays. The first of these chapters offers a brief overview of the history of theater and of national politics until 1920. For those without a detailed knowledge of Argentine history, more information could have proved helpful. For example, the author regularly refers to the mayor (intendente) of the city without indicating that...
