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Hispanic American Historical Review 83.3 (2003) 601-602



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La Universidad de La Plata y el movimiento estudantil: Desde sus orígenes hasta 1930. 2nd ed. Edited by HUGO BIAGINI. La Plata: Universidad Nacional de La Plata, 2001. Photographs. Illustrations. Maps. Bibliography. 216 pp. Paper.

These essays trace the history of the University of La Plata from its beginnings as a small provincial university in the 1890s to the years of student mobilization and cultural upheaval that marked the 1920s. The construction of a capital for the province of Buenos Aires in 1882 offered an unprecedented opportunity for the newly wealthy and progressive Argentine elite to build institutions suited to its vision of modern society. La Plata was to be an ideal urban community, conceived on paper and erected from scratch on the open pampa. Initial plans for the city did not include a university, but the provincial authorities soon sought to establish an institution of higher learning that would serve the needs of the local population while also returning the province to the forefront of "civilization." After a difficult start, the new university did indeed take up a leading role in Argentine intellectual life, temporarily propelling the city of La Plata into the limelight of cultural innovation in Latin America.

Drawing on architectural plans, university memoranda, and other published sources, the authors' close attention to the relationship between institutions and ideologies produces sophisticated analyses of how the dominant values of the administration were embodied in the physical and spatial design of the university, as well as in the pedagogical orientation of its faculties. Another common theme is the interaction between the university and the broader community of La Plata.

However, readers should not expect an extensive analysis of the student movement as it developed in La Plata, as only one of the six essays deals directly with students and the reform process. Another considers the impact of the reform on the teaching of the arts and humanities in the 1920s. The remaining essays focus on the origins and early development of the university from 1897 to 1918, with special emphasis on the long tenure of Joaquín V. González, who became rector of the university after it was nationalized in 1905. A positivist dedicated to correcting Argentine problems through scientific inquiry, González oversaw the rapid transformation of the University of La Plata into one of the most dynamic and progressive research universities in the Americas, earning it the nickname "el Oxford Argentino."

While recognizing the achievements of this era in terms of internal organization, the modernization of research facilities, the creation of valuable links with European academics, and the establishment of connections to the larger community through extension activities, the authors stress the elitist and hierarchical aspects of the positivist educational model. They suggest that positivism, in its institutional form, ultimately failed to respond to the changing interests and ambitions [End Page 601] of Argentine students. González's emphasis on scientific research and the cultivation of a small student elite over broader professional training became points of frustration for those who wished to open higher education to the broader populace and make it more relevant to the practical needs of its student body.

In this, the book does not diverge from the prevailing interpretation of the La Plata reform, which has emphasized its antipositivism along with the demand for greater student involvement in university decision making. The intellectual roots of the reform, especially its connection with idealist philosophy, have been explored before, but here editor Hugo Biagini elevates the tension between positivism and idealism to an "ideological conflict" (p. 10) that could not be accommodated by the university model established during the González era. Biagini's essay examines this conflict in great detail, describing the growing appeal of idealism in La Plata as part of a continent-wide reevaluation of U.S. materialistic and scientific values. While it is clear that the reform process was infused with idealist rhetoric, and there were important links between student leaders...

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