Paul H. Lewis (1) (1937–)

Lewis' book presents a thorough historical narrative of the years between Carlos Menem's assumption of the presidency in 1989 and Cristina Kirchner's first administration beginning in 2007. However, while it does an excellent job of elucidating the internal systemic and structural problems preventing Argentina from escaping the post-Proceso cycle of inflation and economic stagnation, the author arguably focuses too little attention on the external systems that to some degree forced the country into this cycle and kept it there through repeated soft loans with little or no oversight or criteria. In the end, while he discusses the rise of neoliberalism, Lewis does not truly critique it, and therefore falls back into the old cliche, that of a nation foiled by its own lack of political and social will which ultimately rendered it incapable of playing with "the big boys." As always, this offers a very one-sided and shallow interpretation of the situation: Lewis is not wrong, but he's also only half right.… (meer)