Argentine Caudillo: Juan Manuel de Rosas / Edition 1

by John Lynch

Overview

Argentine Caudillo: Juan Manuel de Rosas, is John Lynch's new edition of his 1981 book, which is now out of print. The original has been shortened, making it well-suited for classroom use.

The figure of Juan Manual de Rosas dominates the history of Argentina in the first half of the nineteenth century. Charles Darwin, who met him on campaign against the Indians, described him as "a man of extraordinary character," the lord of vast estates and, for over twenty years, absolute ruler of Buenos Aires and its province. The present book studies the forces which made and sustained Rosas, and examines through him the roots of the caudillo tradition in Argentina. It reconstructs the world of great estates and the rise to power of their proprietors, establishing the relation of patron and client, of master and peon, the basis of political allegiance at that time. Argentine Caudillo follows the career of Rosas as a classical caudillo, who rescued his people from fear and anarchy and delivered them into the hands of a great dictatorship.

Leader of the gauchos, yet representative too of the powerful landed proprietors and cattle exporters, Rosas established an early prototype of a totalitarian state and employed systematic terror to defend his rule. The book helps to elucidate the concept and practice of caudillismo, or personal dictatorship, in the Hispanic world, and the use of violence to seize and defend power. It does this against a backdrop of transition from colony to independence, and then from anarchy to absolutism.

Argentine Caudillo provides a detailed study of the use of state terror as an instrument of policy, one of the few such studies for any period of Latin American history. There is no book which duplicates this work either inside Argentina or outside. In Argentina, Rosas has become a subject of fierce controversy, partly because of his nationalism, partly because of his reign of terror. Consequently, while there is a vast bibliography on Rosas, much of it is polemical and

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780842028981
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	05/01/2001
Series:	Latin American Silhouettes
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	185
Product dimensions:	6.07(w) x 9.11(h) x 0.41(d)

About the Author

John Lynch is emeritus professor of Latin American history at the University of London.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Lord of the Plains Chapter 2 Estanciero Chapter 3 Patron and Peon Chapter 4 An Alternative Argentina Chapter 5 Leviathan Chapter 6 The Terror Chapter 7 Hopes and Fears Chapter 8 Exit and Exile

What People are Saying About This

Lyman Johnson

Lyman Johnson, University of North Carolina
Thanks to Scholarly Resources for making John Lynch's wonderful analysis of the Rosas era available in an accessible version....

John Chasteen

John Chasteen, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
A matchless portrait, in startling chiaroscuro, of a larger-than-life figure and his turbulent times. It's concise, judicious, compelling, and above all, a joy to read. Lynch is a master.

David Rock

David Rock, University of California, Santa Barbara
Eloquently written and incisively argued, this book will remain the standard study of its subject for many years to come.

Editorial Reviews

Thanks to Scholarly Resources for making John Lynch's wonderful analysis of the Rosas era available in an accessible version for undergraduate class use. I look forward to using this extraordinary book in my classes.

Lyman L. Johnson

Argentine Caudillo is an excellent abridged edition of Lynch's classic study on Rosas. In a volume widely recognized as one of the leading works in English on nineteenth-century Argentina, Lynch covers comprehensively the period of Rosas's ascendancy between the late 1820s and early 1850s. He portrays Rosas the man, the origins of his dictatorship, the objectives of his regime, the use of terror, and the causes of his downfall. Eloquently written and incisively argued, this book will remain the standard study of its subject for many years to come.

David Rock

A matchless portrait, in startling chiaroscuro, of a larger-than-life figure and his turbulent times. It's concise, judicious, compelling, and, above all, a joy to read. Lynch is a master. How fortunate that his biography of Rosas has been retooled for the classroom, and by the master himself!

John Charles Chasteen

Argentine Caudillo is an excellent abridged edition of Lynch's classic study on Rosas. In a volume widely recognized as one of the leading works in English on nineteenth-century Argentina, Lynch covers comprehensively the period of Rosas's ascendancy between the late 1820s and early 1850s. He portrays Rosas the man, the origins of his dictatorship, the objectives of his regime, the use of terror, and the causes of his downfall. Eloquently written and incisively argued, this book will remain the standard study of its subject for many years to come.--David Rock, University of California, Santa Barbara

A matchless portrait, in startling chiaroscuro, of a larger-than-life figure and his turbulent times. It's concise, judicious, compelling, and, above all, a joy to read. Lynch is a master. How fortunate that his biography of Rosas has been retooled for the classroom, and by the master himself!--John Charles Chasteen, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Thanks to Scholarly Resources for making John Lynch's wonderful analysis of the Rosas era available in an accessible version for undergraduate class use. I look forward to using this extraordinary book in my classes.--Lyman L. Johnson, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

From the Publisher

Thanks to Scholarly Resources for making John Lynch's wonderful analysis of the Rosas era available in an accessible version for undergraduate class use. I look forward to using this extraordinary book in my classes.

Lyman Johnson

This book studies the forces which made and sustained Rosas, and examines through him the roots of the caudillo tradition in Argentina. It reconstructs the world of great estates and the rise to power of their proprietors, establishing the relation of patron and client, of master and peon, and the basis of political allegiance at the time. The book follows the career of Rosas as a classical caudillo, who rescued his people from fear and delivered them into the hands of a dictatorship. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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