Buenos Aires: A Cultural History (Cultural Histories Series) [Paperback]

Jason Wilson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Buenos Aires is more difficult to capture, yet Wilson (Latin American and Spanish literature, University Coll., London) succeeds admirably. Unlike Oxford, Buenos Aires is organized geographically, but the underlying cultural themes are evident: Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cort zar, and the European literary tradition; tango, the music of longing and despair, machismo, and sensuality; the cult of Evita Per?n; the life-and-death importance of soccer; totalitarian politics; and the Disappeared. The geographic references in the text help convey a sense of place as well as history and culture. Well referenced and indexed, both titles are highly recommended for academic and large public libraries.
-Thomas K. Fry, Univ. of Denver Lib.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Interlink Books (March 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156656347X
• ISBN-13: 978-1566563475
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #410,681 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific guide to a fascinating city, February 26, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Buenos Aires: A Cultural History (Cultural Histories Series) (Paperback)

This is not a "travel book" in the usual sense -- you will not, for instance, find anything about where to stay or eat. Rather, this is an historical, cultural, and literary guide to Buenos Aires that will make your time there more interesting and worthwhile.

Progressing geographically through the city's most important streets, plazas, and neighborhoods, Wilson uses the observations of writers, artists, foreign visitors, politicians, academics, and others to give the reader a "feel" for both the city and its inhabitants. These observations are supplemented with just enough historical framework to provide context. Buenos Aires is a city filled with buildings, streets, and monuments that stir up a great deal of emotion in its inhabitants; what this book does is help to explain why these locations are so important and how they fit together -- geographically, historically, psychologically -- to make up the city.

This book was along with me during my recent trip to Buenos Aires and undoubtedly made my time there more satisfying. Its only real deficiency is a lack of good maps -- there is one, but it is very general and doesn't cover enough territory. Nonetheless, I would strongly recommend this book to anyone traveling to Buenos Aires.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good way to tour Buenos Aires, December 9, 2008

By 

James F. Welch (New Orleans, LA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Buenos Aires: A Cultural History (Cultural Histories Series) (Paperback)

I think some of the other reviewers did not think this book was a good tour of this marvelous city. I disagree. It greatly widened my understanding of the cultural underpinnings of the city. For example, before going for a walking tour of Belgrano, we read the part on it to my fellow travelers the chapters concerning that part of town. Instead of just seeing some great architecture and a dynamic neighborhood, we had some idea of what we were seeing. It improved my understanding of the place, Buenos Aires itself and Argentina in general immeasurably.

This book will not tell you about where to shop, find hotels, or restaurants. It may not be the first place to for a norteamericano to begin investigating this important and beautiful city and country. It is an excellent place to begin investigating its literary and historical environment. It is a good book to carry on the airplane ride.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Disappointing and Boring Data Dump, April 19, 2006

By 

Ray Campbell (Shenzhen China) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Buenos Aires: A Cultural History (Cultural Histories Series) (Paperback)

Jason Wilson is an editor of travel writing collections of some note, and I have much enjoyed other books in the Cities of the Imagination series (most notably Elizabeth Nash's Madrid volume), so I looked forward to the arrival of this book from Amazon with much anticipation.

I was, for the most part, greatly disappointed.

The book was intensively researched, and you can count on several apt quotations per page. Hardly a signicant writer about Buenos Aires in the last three centures goes uncited, and it seems as if every block on the city grid gets its moment.

The flaw - and it is a near fatal flaw - lies in the organization. Wilson organizes the book rigidly according to geography, going more or less block by block around the city, and detailing who lived in this building or what writer set a scene in that block of apartments.

Whereas Nash weaves the history and neighborhoods of Madrid into broad thematic stories, Wilson tells no stories. He bludgeons you with facts and literary quotations, tied together only by geography. It is a hard and boring slog, and even if you push through, you emerge with no unifying concepts that might help you understand this vast and magical city.

It's a shame, really, that the book is so dull and mechanically structured, because the research that went into it clearly was extensive, and because Buenos Aires seems to offer more potential than most cities for a proper Cities of the Imagination treatment. It reads, unfortunately, as if time ran out for the actual writing of the book, and the writer delivered a data dump organized by zip code.

If you drive a tour bus around Buenos Aires for English speaking tourists, this book will prove a handy reference, barrio by barrio, street by street. If you are researching your own book on Buenos Aires, the bibliography alone will save you months in identifying the books you should read. If, however, you are planning a visit to Buenos Aires and want one cultural guide that will help you understand the living, breathing city, this is not the book to choose.