En camino a la democracia politico: 1904–1910

This book holds few surprises for the specialist on early twentieth-century Argentina, but it may serve as a worthwhile introduction for beginning students interested in the Quintana and Figueroa Alcorta presidencies. Based almost entirely on secondary sources and on a scattering of memoirs, biographies, and published papers, the work focuses on the labor unrest, social conflict, and political crisis which persuaded the Argentine elites to move in the direction of electoral reform during this century’s first decade. The authors, both lawyers by profession, divide their analysis into two sections. The first surveys the major political events of the period, particularly the abortive 1905 revolution, Figueroa Alcorta’s “executive coup” (p. 145) of 1908, and Roque Sáenz Peña’s election in 1910. The remainder of the book analyzes intellectual life, economic development, and social change and concludes with an overview of society and culture in each of Argentina’s principal regions. Designed for a popular audience, the book contains little in the way of novel interpretation, although the authors emphasize Figueroa Alcorta’s concern with political reform rather than his repression of the labor movement. Socialist leader Juan B. Justo appears as an elitist cosmopolite less interested in Argentine reality than in German social democratic polemics, while Hipólito Yrigoyen is portrayed as both idealist intellectual and brilliant practical politician. Perhaps the work’s most interesting and original section consists of a series of incisive portraits of contemporary Argentine intellectual leaders. The analysis of Juan Bialet Massé’s contribution to Argentine social thought is excellent.