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The scramble for distant riches has featured centrally in the history of the Global South—from the first forays of European imperialists to the recent fascination with emerging markets. In the mid-nineteenth century, fortune hunters turned their attention to Argentina, transforming it into a front line of an expanding West. While accounts of this period often emphasize impersonal economic flows, Emerging El Dorado demonstrates that this chase for wealth has a far more multifaceted, dynamic, and human history. In Argentina, it encouraged explosive growth across several fronts—financial, commercial, demographic, and territorial. Capitalist routines of accumulation coexisted with get-rich-quick ventures, land grabs, and fraudulent schemes. Eduardo Elena's study profiles the promoters in Argentina and Europe who convinced others that this truly was a "rising country." At the same time, the book investigates the experiences of the groups who helped propel expansion, such as migrant families and overseas investors, and those like mixed-race paisanos/as and Indigenous peoples who were deemed obstacles. By exploring these overlapping social worlds, Emerging El Dorado sheds new light on the roots of our present-day growth dilemmas.
“This strikingly original study looks beyond the macroeconomic numbers to uncover the surprising roles played by the promoters of Argentine growth as well as the immigrants, paisanos, and Indigenous groups who shaped its trajectory.”—Matthew B. Karush, Professor of History, George Mason University
“Amidst the boom in historical research on transnational capitalism, Emerging El Dorado stands out as an especially original and engaging study that incorporates a remarkable range of actors who rarely take center stage in this field of research.”—Barbara Weinstein, author of The Color of Modernity: São Paulo and the Making of Race and Nation in Brazil
“Using a variety of fascinating sources, from diaries to financial records, Eduardo Elena presents a compelling account of Argentina’s golden age by focusing on the people who shaped it. This is history of economic growth done right.”—Paulo Drinot, Professor of Latin American History, University College London