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Urban History Review Revue d'histoire urbaine

Scobie, James R. Secondary Cities of Argentina: the Social History of Corrientes, Salta, and Mendoza, 1850-1910. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988. Pp. XVI, 276. Maps, black and white photographs, illustrations, notes and index Szuchman, Mark D. Order, Family and Community in Buenos Aires 1810-60. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988. Pp. XIII, 307. Figures and tables, illustrations, methodological appendix, notes, bibliography and index Brian M. Evans

Volume 18, Number 1, June 1989

URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1017833ar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1017833ar

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Cite this review Evans, B. M. (1989). Review of [Scobie, James R. Secondary Cities of Argentina: the Social History of Corrientes, Salta, and Mendoza, 1850-1910. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988. Pp. XVI, 276. Maps, black and white photographs, illustrations, notes and index / Szuchman, Mark D. Order, Family and Community in Buenos Aires 1810-60. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988. Pp. XIII, 307. Figures and tables, illustrations, methodological appendix, notes, bibliography and index]. Urban History Review / Revue d'histoire urbaine, 18(1), 95–96. https://doi.org/10.7202/1017833ar

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Centuries of American Planning explore Scobie, James R. Secondary Cities of The chapter on Corrientes, the first city, is many of the episodes in city development Argentina: the Social History of subtitled "A Study in Stagnation." Here the and urban planning in the United States, but, Corrientes, Salta, and Mendoza, 1850- central theme is that for reasons internal and, precisely because they are separate essays, 1910. Stanford: Stanford University Press, primarily, external Corrientes grew only do not present a comprehensive look at the 1988. Pp. XVI, 276. Maps, black and white modestly and was never able to capitalize on development of the planning movement. photographs, illustrations, notes and advantages it sometimes appeared to Planning the Capitalist City attempts to index. possess. present an overview of the connections between the development of planning Szuchman, Mark D. Order, Family and In contrast, Salta ("The Sleeping Beauty"), thought and the realities of how planning was Community in Buenos Aires 1810-60. despite severe problems of health and carried out. Too often, however, it fails to see Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988. hygiene and a rigid social structure, was the complexity of the situation and becomes Pp. XIII, 307. Figures and tables, eventually able to develop its pre-existing mired in its ideological approach to planning. illustrations, methodological appendix, economy and to add some modest local Frederick Law Clmsted and the City Planning notes, bibliography and index. industrial development. Movement in the United States is an intellectual biography that does not Before his untimely death, Jim Scobie had, Mendoza presents a more complex and demonstrate well enough how ideas were by the volume and quality of his publications, dynamic picture. Despite the devastation of carried over into actions; it also become the best-known and most-respected the 1861 earthquake, the city revived quickly, overemphasizes one person's impact on the interpreter of Argentina to the English- and by the end of the 19th century had city planning movement. What is needed are speaking world. The scholarly community, entered a period of rapid demographic and works showing more clearly the connections therefore, should welcome with excitement economic growth. Alone of the cities studied, between ideas and actions, ones that explore this posthumous work, so ably completed Mendoza attracted a large number of in some detail the cooperation and conflict and edited by his friend and colleague southern European immigrants who between different groups and individuals Samuel L Bailey. In a sense Secondary transformed the Pampas. Yet even Mendoza active in the planning movement. Until such Cities of Argentina is a continuation of a failed, in the period under review, to develop works appear, urban planners will be unable sequenc. In 1964 Scobie published a new social structure or to transform the to benefit fully from the study of planning Argentina: a City and a Nation; a decade Cuyo region, of which it had become the history. For instance, an examination of the later Buenos Aires: "Plaza to Suburb." Then economic centre. complex relationships between planners, his focus turned from the metropolis to business groups, and labour groups in the sleepy Corrientes, colonial Salta, and Technically, Secondary Cities of Argentina is progressive period might well offer insights burgeoning Mendoza. well produced. Its maps, diagrams, graphs, useful for those seeking to redefine the and tables are clear and meaningful, and it is relationships between planners, government, Crucial to an understanding of this book is well illustrated. Even more important, the and minority groups in the present day. his belief that these secondary cities, and notes and sources, despite Dr Bailey's others like them, "linked rural economies and modesty in the matter, are organized, Mansel G. Blackford inhabitants with the outside world while informative, and succinct Department of History insulating the traditional rural environment Ohio State Unviersity from the changing character of large urban This book is readable, interesting, and centres. In this intermediate position informative to the widest readership, and it economic relationships and social structure stands as a worthy monument to Scobie's changed slowly ... continuity within the memory. secondary centres thus reinforced conservatism, accentuated the gap between Mark Szuchman's Order, Family and major cities and the rest of the country, and Community in Buenos Aires 1810-60 makes contributed to the resistance to change that an interesting comparison to Scobie's book. characterizes much of Latin America today." Both deal with aspects of urban history in 19th-century Argentina and are works of Within this framework, the three cities are mature scholarship, but there the then described, compared, and contrasted. resemblance ends. Scobie's work is And what a dramatic contrast they provide. essentially urban history conceived as

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historical geography; Szuchman's conceives material into a coherent whole. My only demonstrates how a study of the industry urban history as urban sociology, and, above reservation, albeit a personal bias, is against cannot be divorced from a study of the wider all, tries to recreate family history. As such, it his occasional use of sociological jargon, community. The rise of the automobile is a major pioneering study in a field of Latin which is never elegant and frequently industry was inseparable from the growth of American research hitherto largely ignored. incomprehensible to the non-specialist. Detroit, for, as Davis argues, the "gasoline aristocracy" that guided the industry exerted By and large Szuchman is successful, given Taken together, the works of Scobie and influence beyond the boardroom and into the the difficulties preserved by the data and the Szuchman are complementary. Both are community itself. general absence of previous works. In the major contributions to scholarship and are first chapter, entitled "Home, Neighbourhood, recommended to any Canadian who wants An important contribution of Conspicuous Power," he states his goals, first "to integrate to learn something of Argentina — a country Production is.to dispel the myth that the early traditional evidence and quantitative which, after all, is one whose historical automobile industry was a meritocracy. It evidence" and secondly "to reconcile social development is frequently contrasted with was not, Davis contends, an industry led by history with issues of political legitimacy and that of Canada, not always to the benefit of self-made men, reflecting the openness of social control." ourselves. the social structure. Entry was not necessarily restricted, but success was It is, of course, notorious that most Latin Brian M. Evans predetermined to some extent by wealth, and American societies have signally failed this Department of Geography not all aspiring manufacturers had the same second test, and one of the most interesting University of Winnipeg chance to succeed. features of Szuchman's book is the way he shows how some of Argentina's deepest According to Davis, the quest for social social malaises can be traced to the early Davis, Donald Finlay. Conspicuous prestige by early automobile entrepreneurs 19th century — plus ca change, plus c'est la Production: Automobiles and Elites in carried over into their marketing strategies, même chose. Detroit, 1899-1933. Philadelphia: Temple such that social ambitions often dictated University Press, 1988. Pp. XXI, 282.15 model policy. The social prestige hierarchy of Szuchman's work may be appreciated on black and white plates, tables. $29.95 the community served as a model for the two levels. It rewards a person with only a (U.S.) price-class hierarchy that developed within passing interest in things Argentinian the automobile industry. When Detroit's pre- because it is clearly presented and quite As Eugene Ferguson cautioned more than a automobile elite became involved in readable. Here the choice of illustrations is decade ago in "Toward a Discipline of the automobile manufacturing at the turn of the especially felicitous. At the other level, History of Technology," historians must never century, the status connotations of the Szuchman's work is a detailed microstudy "fail to note the importance of enthusiasm product could not be ignored. The pressure aimed specifically at Latin American that is evoked by the technology." In the was on the early entrepreneurs to build a specialists, especially those whose field is example of the automobile, such enthusiasm vehicle worthy not only of their own name, for Argentina. Here he attempts to integrate the was not merely for the vehicle's most early makes bore a family surname, but traditional evidence with statistic of data. technological capabilities but also for the also of their social peers. While the search The approach is by topic: "Disorder and social meanings the automobile represented. for social prestige caused the public to Social Control," "Growing up in the City," The automobile's social meaning, as Donald purchase costlier automobiles, it also pushed 'Youth and Challenges to the Moral Order," Davis argues in Conspicuous Production, the manufacturers to build more expensive "Children, Politics, and Education," "The had a profound influence not simply on the vehicles. That process, which Davis terms Political Dimensions of Household Changes," automobile industry itself, but also on the conspicuous production, forms the central and then a conclusion on "Masses and very community in which such industry was theme of the book. Political Obligations." located. Central to this process, and thus to Davis's Some of these topics are rather more In a tightly written and well-documented argument for conspicuous production, is the straightforward and self-contained than account, Davis bridges both urban and conviction that the automobile was a others, and again the nature and detail of the business history to examine Detroit's consumer product unlike any other. extant data make some themes easier to automobile elite up to 1933. Relying on a Following its introduction in the 1890s, the comprehend. In general terms, Szuchman wide variety of corporate and personal automobile was, Davis contends, the most has done a good job in melding a mass of biographies, as well as statistical profiles, he important status symbol among consumer

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