Eduardo Elena’s innovative study of consumption during Juan Domingo Perón’s first and second governments (1946 – 55) shows that many fundamental facets of Peronism, one of the most researched subjects in Argentine historiography, have yet to be discovered. Elena joins a cohort of US and Argentine scholars interested in the “democratization of well-being” during the Peronist era, that is, the improvement of living conditions based on new forms of government planning for consumption, housing, education, tourism, and health. In his important contribution to this scholarship, Elena asks why Peronism has become the major turning point of twentieth-century Argentine history and searches for answers at the intersection between political culture and political economy. In response to this question, Elena persuasively points to an original definition of social citizenship that articulated quotidian consumption — both commercial and nonmarket — as an essential component of social justice and economic inclusion. In the vibrant...
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