The Ruins of the New Argentina

by Healey, Mark A.

• ISBN13: 9780822349051
• ISBN10: 0822349051
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-03-09
• Publisher: Duke Univ Pr

Summary

In January 1944, an earthquake reduced the province of San Juan, Argentina to rubble, leaving perhaps ten thousand dead and one hundred thousand homeless. In The Ruins of the New Argentina, Mark A. Healey argues that the disaster and the massive rebuilding project that followed transformed not only the province but also the nation. The earthquake was a shattering and galvanizing experience, an indictment of the old social order and an invitation to transform it. From the national capital, an obscure colonel in a recently installed military regime launched a relief campaign and rapidly commissioned plans to rebuild the province, and especially its capital city. The campaign was a rousing success, launching the public career of its director, Juan Domingo Per#xF3;n, who would soon found a movement, reach the presidency, and transform the politics and social structure of the country. Dreaming and building the new city became the landmark project for a generation of modernist architects and planners, as well as an enduring challenge and controversy for local residents and the Peronist state. By exploring the struggle to rebuild, The Ruins of the New Argentinashows how this destroyed province played a crucial role in forging, testing, and ultimately limiting the Peronist project of transforming the nation.

Author Biography

Mark A. Healey is Assistant Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the translator of Roger Bartra's Blood, Ink, and Culture: Miseries and Splendors of the Post-Mexican Condition, also published by Duke University Press.

Table of Contents

Illustrations	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Acronyms	p. xv
Introduction	p. 1
Revelations Among the Ruins, Early 1944
ôRooted Vines and Uprooted Menö: The World Wine Made	p. 25
In a Broken Place	p. 51
ôThe Measure of Our National Solidarityö: The Aid Campaign and the Rise of Perón	p. 66
The Cornerstone of the New Argentina, Early 1944
Utopias in the Dust: Architects' Visions for the New City	p. 87
The Superstition of Adobe and the Certainty of Concrete	p. 106
Looking for Order among the Ruins	p. 124
From Leading Case to Exemplary Failure, Mid-1944 to Mid-1946
Diverging Paths of Reform: Architects, Labor, and the Reconstruction Council	p. 159
The Revolt of the Engineers: Protest and the Professions in 1945	p. 183
ôSan Juan Is Still Waitingö: Rebuilding and the Election of 1946	p. 204
ôRubble or No Rubble, We Want Perón,ö 1946-1962
Against the ôSovereignty of Expertsö: Rebuilding on Local Terms, 1946-1947	p. 225
ôThe Pacification of Spiritsö: Peronism in One Province, 1947-1955	p. 238
The ôBulldozer Kidö and the Rebuilt City, 1955-1962	p. 267
Final Reckonings	p. 291
Appendix: Government Spending in San Juan	p. 299
Notes	p. 301
Bibliography	p. 357
Index	p. 379
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