The history of the Pampean agricultural boom—and, within it, that of the region’s large landowners—is one of the few landmarks of Argentine historiography. And yet, systematic historical studies on the landed class are scarce. Roy Hora’s book seeks to fill that void, through “a social and political history” of Pampean landowners between 1860 and 1945.
Hora seeks a middle ground between two competing historiographical views of the landowners that are still current today, though in different intellectual realms. One view holds that estancieros were mostly unproductive “latifundistas” who only extracted rent from their properties and were responsible for all the evils of the Argentine economy, past and present. The second, revisionist view proposes a much more positive image of the landowners; they are portrayed as active and modern entrepreneurs whose rural interests were part of a broader strategy of investment diversification with a stake in finance and commerce. Hora sympathizes...
