Book Reviews : The United States and Argentina. By ARTHUR P. WHITAKER. (Cambridge : Harvard University Press. 1955. Pp xv, 272. $4.75.)

• Date: 01 March 1956
• Author: Harry Kantor
• DOI: 10.1177/106591295600900136
• Published date: 01 March 1956
• Subject Matter: Articles

203

Toward

the

end

of

the

volume

the

author

characterizes

Alvear

as

&dquo;proud,

opinionated,

disdainful,

unconscious

of

his

own

ignorant

ambition

or

ineptitude.

He

thought

that

he

had

been

hamstrung

by

little,

bungling

men.&dquo;

But

Alvear

was

himself

a

little,

bungling

man;

the

author

might

have

added

more

unfavorable

adjectives

such

as

&dquo;extravagant,&dquo;

&dquo;turncoat,&dquo;

&dquo;imperceptive.&dquo;

It

is

normally

not

easy

to

write

a

biography

of

such

a

man.

Even

a

second-rate

leader

can

become

a

hero

to

his

biographer

(if

not

his

valet),

and

a

thorough,going

rogue

can

also

be

handled

readily.

But

the

man

of

little

capacity,

who

deserves

unfavorable

adjectives

almost

exclu-

sively,

presents

his

difficulties.

The

author

has

surmounted

these

admirably

and

has

given

us

an

excellently

balanced

picture

of

Alvear,

a

man

whom

many

Latin-American

history

textbooks

do

not

even

mention.

The

main

outlines

of

Alvear’s

career

were

relatively

simple:

early

experience

in

Spain

and

England,

a

fairly

creditable

record

in

the

fighting

for

independence

in

and

around

Buenos

Aires,

and

then

a

long

diplomatic

career,

most

of

it

in

the

United

States.

During

his

quarter

century,

more

or

less,

in

this

country

he

formed

a

profound

suspicion

of

United

States

motives

and

policies

toward

Latin

America.

The

author’s

implication

is

that

the

long

consequent

dispatches

he

sent

back

to

Buenos

Aires

were

the

basis,

at

least

in

part,

of

the

later

Argentine-United

States

misunder-

standing

and

ill

will.

This

would

seem

to

require

more

proving.

It

over-

looks

the

open

constitutional

borrowing

in

1853,

the

long

practice

by

Argen-

tine

jurists

of

looking

to

United

States

constitutional

law

for

precedents,

the

deep-seated

admiration

felt

by

Sarmiento.

Professor

Whitaker

in

a

recent

book

has

indicated

that

the

friction

was

late

in

developing.

But

the

research

has

been

most

carefully

done

(a

twenty-six-page

bibliographical

note

admirably

describes

the

sources),

the

documentation

is

entirely

satisfactory,

and

the

perspective

and

judiciousness

of

the

author

are

equally

so.

Only

one

major

defect

in

format

exists:

placing

footnotes

at

the

end

of

the

book

instead

of

the

bottom

of

the

page

may

simplify

matters

for

the

printer

but

it

is

an

abomination

to

the

reader.

The

book

is

a

highly

useful

addition

to

the

scant

literature

in

English

on

a

little-known

Argentine

figure.

The

author

is

to

be

congratulated.

University

of

California,

Los

Angeles.

RUSSELL

H.

FITZGIBBON.

The

United

States

and

Argentina.

By

ARTHUR

P.

WHITAKER.

(Cam-

bridge :

Harvard

University

Press.

1955.

Pp

xv,

272.

$4.75.)

This

book

is

another

in

the

American

Foreign

Policy

Library

edited

by

Donald

C.

McKay.

Similar

to

the

other

volumes

in

this

series,

it

is

a

well-

written

analysis

of

developments

in

Argentina

that

affect

its

relations

with

the

United

States.

The

title

is

misleading,

however,

since

there

is

very