Pilar González Bernaldo de Quirós
Civility and Politics in the Origins of the Argentine Nation
Sociabilities in Buenos Aires, 1829–1862
March 27, 2007
Latin American Studies, Vol. 88
0-87903-089-5978-0-87903-089-6 Paper $29.95 Available Now.

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A truly ground-breaking history of the decisive years in the formation of the modern nation of Argentina, this volume explores the sociocultural processes leading to its emergence by exploring and documenting political sociability in Buenos Aires. The relational practices of people and the physical spaces wherein groups of people—primarily the cultural and political elite but also other groups including the Afro-Argentine population—meet and interact are documented through archival materials from private groups and organizations and police records. The author also presents materials from the newspapers and magazines, contemporary memoirs, traveler accounts, and commercial guides of the period. Such sources and the three elements of her methodology—analysis of sociability practices, experimental cartography, and collective biography—provide a unique perspective on the city's politics and culture during a transformative period.