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"In collecting hundreds of letters to Juan and Eva by everyday people as well as from correspondence solicited by Juan Perón, this book promotes a view that charismatic bonds in Argentina have been formed as much by Argentines as by their leaders, demonstrating how letter writing at that time instilled a sense of nationalism and unity, particularly during the first Five Year Plan campaign conducted in 1946. It goes beyond the question of how charisma influenced elections and class affiliation to address broader implications. The letters offer a new methodology to study the formation of charisma in literate countries where not just propaganda and public media but also private correspondence defined and helped shape political policies. Focusing on the first era of Peronism, from 1946 to 1955, this work shows how President Perón and the First Lady created charismatic ways to link themselves to Argentine supporters through letter writing."--Back cover

Introduction -- Female philanthropy and feminism before the welfare state: family law, and the politics of names -- Benevolence and female volunteerism -- Performing child welfare : philanthropy and feminism from the damas to Eva Perón -- Juvenile delinquency, patriarchy, and female philanthropy -- The depression and the rise of the welfare state -- At the crossroads of change : Peronism, the welfare state, and the decline of non-Peronist female authority.

In this pathbreaking history, Donna J. Guy shows how feminists, social workers, and female philanthropists contributed to the emergence of the Argentine welfare state through their advocacy of child welfare and family-law reform. From the creation of the government-subsidized Society of Beneficence in 1823, women were at the forefront of the child-focused philanthropic and municipal groups that proliferated first to address the impact of urbanization, European immigration, and high infant mortality rates, and later to meet the needs of wayward, abandoned, and delinquent children. Women staffed child-centered organizations that received subsidies from all levels of government. Their interest in children also led them into the battle for female suffrage and the campaign to promote the legal adoption of children. When Juan Perón expanded the welfare system during his presidency (1946-1955), he reorganized private charitable organizations that had, until then, often been led by elite and immigrant women.Drawing on extensive research in Argentine archives, Guy reveals significant continuities in Argentine history, including the rise of a liberal state that subsidized all kinds of women's and religious groups. State and private welfare efforts became more organized in the 1930s and reached a pinnacle under Juan Perón, when men took over the welfare state and philanthropic and feminist women's influence on child-welfare activities and policy declined. Comparing the rise of Argentina's welfare state with the development of others around the world, Guy considers both why women's child-welfare initiatives have not received more attention in historical accounts and whether the welfare state emerges from the top down or from the bottom up

In this pathbreaking history, Donna J. Guy shows how feminists, social workers, and female philanthropists contributed to the emergence of the Argentine welfare state through their advocacy of child welfare and family-law reform. From the creation of the government-subsidized Society of Beneficence in 1823, women were at the forefront of the child-focused philanthropic and municipal groups that proliferated first to address the impact of urbanization, European immigration, and high infant mortality rates, and later to meet the needs of wayward, abandoned, and delinquent children. Women staffed child-centered organizations that received subsidies from all levels of government. Their interest in children also led them into the battle for female suffrage and the campaign to promote the legal adoption of children. When Juan Perón expanded the welfare system during his presidency (1946–1955), he reorganized private charitable organizations that had, until then, often been led by elite and immigrant women. Drawing on extensive research in Argentine archives, Guy reveals significant continuities in Argentine history, including the rise of a liberal state that subsidized all kinds of women's and religious groups. State and private welfare efforts became more organized in the 1930s and reached a pinnacle under Juan Perón, when men took over the welfare state and philanthropic and feminist women's influence on child-welfare activities and policy declined. Comparing the rise of Argentina's welfare state with the development of others around the world, Guy considers both why women's child-welfare initiatives have not received more attention in historical accounts and whether the welfare state emerges from the top down or from the bottom up.

The Mexican Revolution has fascinated historians and specialists of Mexico for years, but the role of women in the revolution has traditionally been absent except for some brief mention of soldaderas and Adelitas, female participants viewed as exceptional. Sex in Revolution: Gender, Politics and Power in Modern Mexico is an important set of essays that explores the dynamics of both sex and gender in Mexico before and after the revolution.

The history of the Dirty War in Argentina relates as much to intolerance of adolescents and young people as to ideological conflict. The fact that the disappeared in Argentina were disproportionately young and buried in plots that identified them as nameless ("ningún nombre," or "N.N.") links this war to the long history of state efforts to control the actions of parents and delinquent children. Argentine society, of which the military formed a part, had long refused to accept the idea of adolescence and rejected all inappropriate behavior of young people from 1919 on. The combination of extralegal efforts of families to rid themselves of unwanted children and the state's desire to control families eventually became part of a military policy of getting rid of perceived unacceptable youths by having them disappeared and buried in anonymous graves.