The lives are those of Leandro Alem and Lisandro de la Torre extending over the cien años from 1842 to 1939. For the student of Argentine political history, this posthumous work by a noted politician and journalist makes fascinating reading, and although the publishers as yet have not announced a second volume, it is to be hoped that such a manuscript exists to complement this first volume which ends with Alem’s suicide in 1896.
The emphasis is strictly political, and the vidas suffer in comparison to the detail of the años. For the first four hundred pages of the book, in other words until the Revolution of’90, Alem’s biography receives only forty-five pages and Torre’s five. Indeed, the title is deceptive, for Noble reaches far back into the colonial period, discourses at length on the mistaken federalism of the early caudillos, and contributes an extensive treatise on the significance of Rosas to Argentine political development.
The author’s one bias is in favor of Mitre, yet he does not let this judgment blind him to the changing influences of Buenos Aires on political events. Thus López Jordán is revealed as the last great defender of local autonomy in the tradition of Artigas, Ramírez, and López. The revolutions of ’74 and ’80, although fought against different forces, mark the efforts to restore a federal structure in government and to control the power of Avellaneda’s, and then Roca’s, league of governors. The Revolution of ’90 is not only a reaction against corruption and a demand for suffrage, but a protest against the absorbing power of a national government and bureaucracy.
Against the background of political detail, the lives and personalities of Alem and Torre hardly ever come into focus. Noble produces extensive and interesting documentation on both mens’ activities in the Revolution of ’90, but even this material enables one better to understand Mitre, Roca, or Valle than Alem or Torre. Equally disappointing is the fact that the wealth of political detail is never related, even in synthesis, to the important social and economic changes occurring in Argentina. The total absence of footnotes, bibliography, or indication of sources is another notable lack in a work evidently based on exhaustive research. Yet for those thoroughly grounded in the political history of Argentina, Noble provides much food for thought and suggests many provocative theses. His style is clear and his word pictures captivating, as when he describes Júarez Gelmán’s congress: “They sanctioned laws with the same facility and speed that buttons are made.” And his objectivity in dealing with recent and still strongly debated events and personalities is remarkable.
