Armando Alonso Piñeiro has been a prolific writer on Argentine history; his works have included some substantial studies of the indipendence period, most notably a “life and times” of General Juan José Viamonte. The volume under review here, however, holds no great revelations, despite its provocative title. This series of historical sketches, footnotes to the principal events of the Argentine past, initially appeared in a popular weekly periodical and received a journalistic award.
The majority of these brief sections deals with the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the period of romantic events well-known to the ever patriotic Argentines. The purpose is to settle a controversy, clear up a misunderstanding, or correct an inaccurate date. Most of the issues are of antiquarian interest concerning minor points in major events. Teachers may indeed find interesting materials to enrich classroom presentations.
The most entertaining part of this volume for the North American reader is an appendix in which the author relates “experiences of an Argentine historian in the United States,” experiences which resulted from an extensive visit made in 1975. His criticisms of a publish-or-perish system and of a trend toward computer-based quantification evidence his preference for a more “classical” methodology. But Alonso Piñeiro admits that history of the type presented in this work may be on its way out as the staple of Argentine historiography.
