Ezequiel Adamovsky: A History of Argentina: From the Spanish Conquest to the Present, translated by Rebecca Wolpin, Durham, Duke University Press, 2024. ‎ 

 

 

 

In A History of Argentina, originally published in Spanish in 2020, Ezequiel Adamovsky presents over five hundred years of Argentine economic, political, social, and cultural history. Adamovsky highlights the experiences of women, Indigenous communities, and other groups that have traditionally been left out of the historical archive. He focuses on harmful aspects of Spanish colonization such as gender subjugation, the violence enacted in the name of the Catholic Church, the role of the economy as it shifted from the encomienda system into modern industrialization, and the devastating effects of slavery, violence, and disease brought to the region by Spanish colonizers. Adamovsky also discusses Argentina’s independence and territorial consolidation, the first democratic elections in 1916, military coups, Peronism, democratization and the neoliberal reforms of the 1980s, and many other facets of Argentine life up to the 2019 presidential election. Concise, accessible, and comprehensive, A History of Argentina is an essential guide to this nation.

 

 

 

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Table of Contents

1. Violence: The Conquest and the Colonial Order
2. Revolution! The End of the Colonial Order, the Wars of Independence, and a Long Period of Discord (1806–1852)
3. The Great Transformation: The Expansion of the State and the Market in Argentina (1852–1912)
4. Liberal Argentina and Its Constraints: From Failed Democracy to Peronism (1912–1955)
5. The Pendulum: Dictatorship, the Market, and Popular Power, from Perón’s Overthrow to the National Reorganization Process (1955–1983)
6. Democracy Devalued: Between the Promises of Democracy and Neoliberalism, from Alfonsín to Macri (1983–2019)
Epilogue. Argentine History over the Long Term  

Selected Bibliography  

Index  

 

 

Reviews

“A rich and ambitious work that covers multiple historical dimensions—from economic structures and sociopolitical processes to ethnicities and sexuality—Ezequiel Adamovsky’s A History of Argentina is a magnificent contribution to the English bibliography on Argentine history. In a landscape dominated by thematic monographs focused on short time periods, Adamovsky offers a conceptually solid and narratively engaging synthesis of current scholarship encompassing the entire country’s history.”―Pablo Palomino, author of, The Invention of Latin American Music: A Transnational History

“With this translation, English readers have access to the best single-volume history of Argentina, written by one of the country’s most innovative and influential historians. Ezequiel Adamovsky draws on a wide range of interdisciplinary scholarship to highlight the experience and agency of ordinary people. Accessible to readers encountering Argentine history for the first time, this engaging account nonetheless has much to teach more experienced students and scholars; it surprises and illuminates on every page.”―Matthew B. Karush, author of, Musicians in Transit: Argentina and the Globalization of Popular Music

 

"A magisterial historical summary (...). Adamovsky’s history of Argentina offers enlightening and candid insights into the currents that course beneath the surface of this complex and misunderstood country, which in some ways is unique in Latin America yet in others reflects all the region’s psychoses. If you have struggled so far to understand it—and I confess to being one of the many who has—reading this history is the best way to start." Gavin O'Toole, Latin American Review of Books (UK), 14 April 2024. 

 

“An excellent option for those teaching a survey of Argentine history”, John W. Sherman, Journal of Global South Studies (Gainesville, FL., United States), vol. 42, no. 1, Spring 2025, pp. 103-104. 

"Adamovsky covers the broad sweep of Argentina’s history, from its pre-Columbian Indigenous peoples to the present. Heprovides a detailed, nuanced portrait of the national history, and every chapter contains insightful analysis and new information, even for someone familiar with Argentina’s history. Among the most interesting, and depressing, chapters are the final ones, in which he analyzes compellingly and with hard numbers Argentina’s economic decline and growing social inequality. Those chapters and the analysis of the kind of neoliberal feedback loop that Argentina has been in since the 1990s are the most original and informative of the book." James Brennan, Hispanic American Historical Review (EEUU), vol. 105, no. 1, 2025, pp. 125–126.

 

A History of Argentina: From the Spanish Conquest to the Present by Ezequiel Adamovsky is a well-written, narrative-driven overview of Argentina’s national history. It is a welcome addition to accesible academic resources, serving as a primer for English-speaking audiences. Through a critical approach to Argentina’s twists and turns, Adamovsky does not shy away from recounting its darker moments and its occasional moments of brilliance as part of its history. (…) The book overall clearly reflects a bent towards recent trends in telling ‘history from below’, avoiding the overdetermination of focusing solely on the ‘great people of history’ or the nation’s elite, by tracing the evolution of history as it pertains to criollos, Gauchos, Afro-Argentines, Indigenous peoples, women and the working class over time. (…) As a scholar and teacher, I would recommend this book for audiences unfamiliar with Argentina’s national history or for a class focused on Argentine or Latin American history. Stephen Di Trolio, Journal of Latin American Studies (London), 2026, pp. 1–3.

 

"El libro constituye una síntesis desde la conquista española hasta el presente. Publicado originalmente en castellano y traducido al inglés por Rebecca Wolpin para Duke University Press en el marco del Programa Sur del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto, está dirigido a un público amplio y, en particular, a lectores no especializados interesados en las historias nacionales de Iberoamérica. La traducción pone a disposición del público angloparlante una de las historias generales más difundidas de la Argentina reciente. Incorpora muchos de los temas de la historiografía contemporánea: las relaciones entre clase, raza y género; la participación política de los sectores populares; los conflictos regionales; la construcción del Estado; la cultura política; y las desigualdades que marcaron la experiencia nacional. En este sentido, funciona como una alternativa a las síntesis centradas en las élites políticas." Irina Podgorny, Estudios Interdisciplinarios de América Latina y el Caribe (Tel Aviv), no. 37 (1), 2026, pp. 135-137.