In 1946 Juan Perón launched a populist challenge to the United States, recruiting an army of labor activists to serve as worker attachés at every Argentine embassy. By 1955, over five hundred would serve, representing the largest presence of blue-collar workers in the foreign service of any country in history. A meatpacking union leader taught striking workers in Chicago about rising salaries under Perón. A railroad motorist joined the revolution in Bolivia. A baker showed Soviet workers the daily caloric intake of their Argentine counterparts. As Ambassadors of the Working Class shows, the attachés' struggle against US diplomats in Latin America turned the region into a Cold War battlefield for the hearts of the working classes. In this context, Ernesto Semán reveals, for example, how the attachés' brand of transnational populism offered Fidel Castro and Che Guevara their last chance at mass politics before their embrace of revolutionary violence. Fiercely opposed by Washington, the attachés’ project foundered, but not before US policymakers used their opposition to Peronism to rehearse arguments against the New Deal's legacies.
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In the story of Argentina's diplomatic worker attachés dispatched to further Peronism, organized labor became a crucial aspect in defining democracy and perceptions of social justice, freedom, and sovereignty in the Americas.
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Acknowledgments  ix Introduction. From the Fringes of the Nation to the World  1 1. In Search of Social Reform  23 2. "The Argentine Problem"  44 3. Apostles of Social Revolution  68 4. From the Belly of the Beasts  102 5. At the Turn of the Tide  132 6. Political Declension  166 7. A Bitter Pill 193 Conclusion. Branding Mass Politics in the Americas  219 Notes  233 Bibliography  287 Index  311
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"In this insightful volume, the author provides a multilevel analysis of the workings and lasting impact of Argentine labor attachés in the post–World War II era. . . .  Among the many unique contributions of this book is the analysis of how nationalist Perónism became a symbol for domestic and transnational competing visions of liberal democracy and how it was a lens through which US policy makers and elites viewed the legacy of the New Deal. Highly recommended."
Les mer
"Using the history of Peronist worker attachés, Ernesto Semán takes readers on a journey through the political, economic, and social history not only of Argentina but of the Americas as a whole. This is political, economic, intellectual, and transnational history at its best. This splendid book reveals how the attachés and their intense activism shaped the dynamics of early Cold War politics in the Americas, and Semán provides novel perspectives on Argentinian populism, its historical tributaries, and the way it enables us to rethink the legacy of FDR's New Deal."
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780822369059
Publisert
2017-08-25
Utgiver
Vendor
Duke University Press
Vekt
454 gr
Høyde
229 mm
Bredde
152 mm
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
328

Forfatter

Biographical note

Historian Ernesto Semán is Assistant Professor at the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond and the author of five previous books, which include novels and political essays.