Facundo: Or, Civilization and Barbarism (Penguin Classics)

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Summary: one classic argentine's book
Review: It's difficult to classify "Facundo" written by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (argentine thinker, politician and educator) in 1845: it is at the same time history, myth, essay, pamphelt and sociological discourse. It was published for first time as a newspaper serial in Chile where Sarmiento was in exile and written against Rosas'dictatorchip in Argentina. The text is influenced by the Enlightment and specially by the romanticism. Because of the romantic influence, it tells Facundo Quiroga's biography since for romantic'stream a "great man" (Facundo in this case) expresses an epoch. This book has the intention of solving an enigma: how independence's revolution in Argentina (1810) reached Rosas ' dictactorship (1835-1852) This drama, product of the revolution, was caused by the combination of 2 elements which shouldn't have been combined: the city, civilization's field, and the countryside, barbarism's field. The book can be read as the city and the countryside were the characters.