Following independence, Argentina experienced decades of conflict and unstable alliances between national and provincial authorities. Throughout this period, violence and armed intervention became useful ways to achieve and secure political power. As the national state became consolidated during the second half of the nineteenth century, the use of force lost legitimacy and the different political actors developed new ways to compromise and negotiate with their opponents. Political and institutional studies of this period abound, and Flavia Macías's Armas y política en la Argentina should be inscribed in this extensive tradition. However, the book's focus on the province of Tucumán and the author's compelling analysis of the political role played by the provincial armed forces provide an alternative and complementary view to the existing scholarship that enhances our understanding of this period in a multitude of ways.
Armas y política en la Argentina is fundamentally a study of the role of...
