I Die with My Country: Perspectives on the Paraguayan War, 1864-1870 (review)

I Die with My Country is a compelling compilation of essays on the Paraguayan War. It underlines the centrality of this war for the history of South America, and offers a rare, English-language study of America's longest international conflict since colonization. A Triple Alliance of Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil fought against Paraguay in a drawn-out, bloody, and largely unpopular war. I Die with My Country forms part of the "new military history" which focuses on the everyday experiences of war, rather than on military strategy, technology, and battles. Incorporating chapters on all four participant countries in the war, this book also fits with the post-revisionist history of the Paraguayan War that highlights the centrality of regional tensions in the conflict over issues of Paraguayan aggression or British imperialism.

The very breadth of issues covered in this volume is its greatest strength. The book is organized geographically, covering Paraguay, Brazil, and the Spanish-speaking allies respectively. The introduction by Hendrik Kraay and Thomas L. Whigham offers a concise overview of the war, while Whigham's concluding chapter puts the Paraguayan War into a larger perspective of nation-building in nineteenth-century South America. As Whigham argues, in the end the war left the four participant countries "better positioned to face the challenges of the modern age" despite the fact that each country's experience with the war was distinctly different (198).

Jerry W. Cooney's chapter offers a wealth of detailed information on the quick transformation of Paraguay's already centralized command economy into a war economy. The Paraguayan War, he argues "illustrates how the industrial revolution affected war in the mid-nineteenth century," requiring economies of scale and a large population base (42). As Cooney points out, Paraguay lacked these critical factors and thus could not match the ability of the Triple Alliance to mobilize resources for the war, despite Paraguay's tremendous efforts. His incorporation of the literature on women's role in the Paraguayan economy turns this chapter into a well-rounded analysis.

Barbara Potthast analyzes the meaning and consequences of women's wartime support in Paraguay. She concludes that women's contributions to the war were critical for sustaining the country's war economy, but that this support did not translate into a significant change in women's roles or improved political standing in post-war Paraguay. Potthast successfully moves beyond the dichotomy of "patriotism" or "coercion" as the only explanatory models for women's support. Instead, she points at the initial benefits women gained from supporting the war, as well as the persistence of traditional gender obligations, which compelled women to support the soldiers at the front.

Hendrik Kraay's chapter analyzes the mobilization of popular support for the war in Brazil. As such, Kraay's study offers an insightful discussion of the intersection of partisan politics and recruitment. Specifically, he focuses on the reasons for mobilizing zuavo [Afro-Brazilian] units and the political effects of such race-based mobilization; a tradition that Brazil had abandoned earlier in the century. Kraay proposes that although the state was willing to recruit zuavo regiments in response to local suggestions, these units were quickly dissolved at the front. Not unlike women in Paraguay, the zuavos found that on their return from the front, they were unable to convert their patriotic engagement into improved political standing.

Renato Lemos's chapter turns the reader's attention to the experience at the front. His detailed analysis of Benjamin Constant's letters sent during his service in Paraguay reveals the growing disillusionment of Constant, one of Brazil's most prominent positivists and a central figure in the military coup that overthrew the Brazilian monarchy almost three decades after the war. Lemos's skillfully demonstrates how Constant's positivism made him suspicious of both the entrenched political elite and the popular classes' ability to embrace the correct path to modernization. In a broader perspective, this...