Ruins of the New Argentina

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.

“The Ruins of the New Argentina is the best introduction that I know of to the baffling political movement that continues to rule Argentina after six decades full of sound and fury. Mark A. Healey makes sense of the Peronist revolution that transformed Argentina by considering it from the perspective of a provincial capital devastated by an earthquake during the formative years of Peronism. Healey’s counterintuitive approach pays off, yielding a fascinating account populated by a curious mix of reformist soldiers, provincial strongmen, labor activists, and modernist architects.”-Tulio HalperÍn Donghi, author of The Contemporary History of Latin America “Through the lens of the San Juan earthquake and the reconstruction efforts that followed, Mark A. Healey offers us a meticulously researched, rigorously argued, and beautifully written political and cultural history of modern Argentina. This tour de force teaches us new ways of thinking about Peronism, regional populist experiences, the interaction of national and local politics, and the sociopolitical dynamics produced by disasters.”-Javier Auyero, author of Poor People’s Politics: Peronist Survival Networks and the Legacy of Evita “Healy deserves much praise for the many accomplishments of this book….What Healy masterfully underscores […] is that the relation between the state and the provinces is a fundamental angle of analysis that deserves further attention. This book is an excellent example of the value of such an enterprise. It is also an innovative and creative contribution to the study of Peronism that ventures beyond traditional thematic and geographic perimeters.” - Paula Alonso (American Historical Review) “Healey’s book joins a historiography that has moved the study of Peronism away from the traditional focus on Buenos Aires and the labor movement. In line with current scholarship that has criticized the idea of “natural disasters” by focusing on their social, political, and cultural consequences, Healey innovatively looks at the San Juan earthquake as a crucible that sheds light on the emergence of Peronism, changes in local power, urban rebuilding, and the transformation of the fields of engineering and architecture.” - Natalia Milanesio (Hispanic American Historical Review) “Healey’s work is at once a tightly argued, well-sourced, and incredibly detailed account of mid-twentieth century San Juan and a nuanced and persuasive analysis of Peronist Argentina.” - Jonathan Hagood (The Americas) “After reading this wonderful book, there is no doubt that historians will never think about this event, or the politics of natural disasters more broadly, in the same way again…. It stands as a model for how scholars should study the political and social history of natural disasters, and it deserves to become required reading for historians interested in any or all of its four central areas of enquiry.” - Eduardo Elena (Social History) “This is a book that will appeal to historians (and not only to urban historians), urban designers and architects, geographers, urban planners and political scientists. Healey uses the events surrounding this earthquake to recount a fresh story of the origins of Peronism. In doing so, the book paints a picture that will appeal to many scholars in a number of disciplines. . . . Mark Healey has done an excellent job in reconstructing this key moment in Argentina’s history and in showing Peronism on the move.” - José A. Borello (Journal of Latin American Geography) “Healey provides an integrated perspective that builds on recent work on disasters and makes important contributions to Argentine historiography and the history of urbanism and planning.” - Edward Murphy (Technology and Culture) "Healey has given us a crucial study that allows us to see much more clearly what Peronism was and was not. For too long the interior provinces have been neglected, and with this extremely well-written book Healey has taken us several steps further down the road to understanding the founding era of Peronism and how it affected the lives of ordinary Argentines in ways that still matter."  - Joel Horowitz (Latin American Research Review)

• Illustrations ixAcknowledgments xiAcronyms xvIntroduction 1Part 1. Revelations Among the Ruins, Early 1944 1. "Rooted Vines and Uprooted Men": The World Wine Made 252. In a Broken Place 513. "The Measure of Our National Solidarity": The Aid Campaign and the Rise of Perón 66Part 2. The Cornerstone of the New Argentina, Early 1944 4. Utopias in the Dust: Architects' Visions for the New City 875. The Superstition of Adobe and the Certainty of Concrete 1066. Looking for Order Among the Ruins 124Part 3. From Leading Case to Exemplary Failure, Mid-1944 to Mid-1946 7. Diverging Paths of Reform: Architects, Labor, and the Reconstruction Council 1598. The Revolt of the Engineers: Protest and the Profession in 1945 1839. "San Juan is Still Waiting": Rebuilding and the Election of 1946 204Part 4. "Rubble or No Rubble, We Want Perón, 1946–1962 10. Against the "Sovereignty of Experts": Rebuilding on Local Terms, 1946–1947 22511. "The Pacification of Spirits": Peronism in One Province, 1947–1955 23812. The "Bulldozer Kid" and the Rebuilt City, 1955–1962 267Final Reckonings 291Appendix: Government Spending in San Juan 299Notes 301Bibliography 357Index 379