The ruins of the new Argentina : Peronism and the remaking of San Juan after the 1944 earthquake

A history explaining how Peronism emerged in relation to both the earthquake that devastated San Juan, Argentina, in 1944, and the massive rebuilding project that followed. 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 nation’s capital, an obscure colonel in a recently installed military regime launched a relief campaign and rapidly commissioned plans to rebuild the province, especially its capital city. The campaign was a rousing success, launching the public career of its director, Juan Domingo Perón, 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, Healey shows how this destroyed province played a crucial role in forging, testing, and ultimately limiting the Peronist project of transforming the nation. In January 1944, an earthquake devastated the province of San Juan in Argentina. As many as ten thousand people were killed; half of the survivors were left homeless. Here, Healey argues that the disaster and rebuilding project that followed transformed not only the province but also the nation Revelations Among The Ruins, Early 1944 -- The Cornerstone Of The New Argentina, Early 1944 -- From Leading Case To Exemplary Failure, Mid-1944 To Mid-1946 -- Rubble Or No Rubble, We Want Perón, 1946-1962. Mark A. Healey. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [357]-378) And Index. Cultural history of the politics of rebuilding after a devastating 1944 Argentinean earthquake, linking the consequences of the disaster to the origins of Peronism