31 - Argentina, 1930–1946

Summary

Still among the best and liveliest introductions to Argentina in the period between the revolution of 1930 and the rise of Perón (1943–6) are three English-language books published in the early 1940s: John W. White, Argentina, the Life Story of a Nation (New York, 1942), which aptly captures the puzzled response among North Americans to the apparently hostile attitudes of Argentines during the late 1930s until 1942; Ysabel Rennie, The Argentine Republic (New York, 1945), which remains one of the best general introductions to Argentine history and offers an excellent analysis of the years 1943–5; and Felix Weil, Argentine Riddle (New York, 1944). Weil, a member of one of the ‘Big Four’ grain-exporting families, argued for the type of future association between Argentina and the United States that Pinedo and the Liberals had aspired to in 1940s, in which the United States would take charge of industrializing Argentina. If the book contains this thread of wishful thinking, it also shows an extremely well-informed knowledge of Argentine society and the issues facing the country at this critical juncture. Other highly informative accounts by American and British observers are: Robert J. Alexander, The Perón Era (New York, 1951); COI (Congress of Industrial Organizations), Committee on Latin American Affairs, The Argentine Regime: Facts and Recommendations to the United Nations (New York, 1946); CTAL (Confederación de Trabajadores de América Latina), White and Blue Book: In Defense of the Argentine People and Against the Fascist Regime Oppressing It (Mexico D.F., February 1946); Ray Josephs, Argentine Diary: The Inside Story of the Coming of Fascism (New York, 1944); Nicholas John Spykman, America’s Strategy in World Politics: The United States and the Balance of Power (New York, 1942); Sumner Welles, Where Are We Heading? (New York, 1946).