Academics tend to concur nowadays that the emotional experience of migration is a historical and social problem. However, as María Bjerg points out, the emotional consequences migrants have experienced worldwide − and continue to experience − have been an under-researched topic by historians, especially in Latin America. The book Emotions and Migration in Argentina at the Turn of the 20th Century, written by Argentine historian Bjerg and published in English in 2021, seeks to advance knowledge of the intimate experiences that migration may trigger. Specifically, she draws attention to the behaviours and love trajectories − in short, the experiences − of those men and women who planned a future far from their cities, countries and contexts of origin. While Bjerg's book aims to tell the story of migration in Argentina at the turn of the century, it also seeks to map the story of relationships, particularly of their failures. The author successfully achieves both objectives.

The book comprises six chapters that focus on specific issues of migration and couple relationships. In Chapter 1, titled ‘The Land of Prosperity’, Bjerg traces the history of Argentina in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This historical contextualisation allows her to establish a framework for the specific problems she will address in the following chapters. That is, it provides an evaluation of the social contradictions provoked by the modernisation of Argentina. Bjerg shows how Argentina's immense economic development contrasts with the social, cultural and economic hardships experienced by many people. Between 1880 and 1914, approximately 4.2 million immigrants, mostly Spanish and Italian, arrived in Argentina. The author explains that those who came after 1890 faced more economic and social hardship due to, among other factors, the high cost of land and overcrowding in the cities.

The following five chapters tell different stories of failed love − mainly failed marriages − in the context of migration experiences. In these chapters, Bjerg used court records as case studies and, in addition, she reviewed the press and legislation of the time, which allowed her to qualify the data contained in the court files. The author is aware of the limitations of her primary sources, but, at the same time, she is mindful of their potential. According to her, the criminal sources provide insights into the intersectionality of the emotional standards that existed at the time. By exploring the language used throughout the trials she notes that when foreigners resorted to the courts, they had to adapt their language and behaviour to the emotional standards demanded of them by the Argentine legal system. The judicial sources show both the asymmetrical power relations within a patriarchal judicial and cultural context and the way that foreign women had to behave to expose their intimacy within the legal framework.

In the chapter ‘Promise, Waiting and Betrayal’ Bjerg employs these concepts to give an account of the symbolic structure of the migratory project and, at the same time, of one of its possible outcomes: the betrayal of migration, understood as a family project, through bigamy. The book tells different stories of married men who travelled to Argentina searching for a better future for themselves and their families but decided to renege on their promise by remarrying with another person. In Argentina, this constituted a crime classified as bigamy, so some women travelled to Argentina to claim their children's rights. The promise to reunite the couple and/or the family was a structuring axis of the migration project. When this promise was broken, legal problems arose. In the context of a patriarchal culture, Bjerg points out that the prevailing notion of romantic love established two fundamental principles marked by gender obligations: society demanded men to take charge of economic affairs while women had to obey. The concepts of responsibility and obedience enrich the conceptual framework developed by Bjerg and allow us to understand how the Argentine justice system dealt with cases such as this one.

The next chapter, ‘Breaking Sacred Vows’, focuses on cases where women accused of adultery were sued by their husbands. Throughout this chapter, Bjerg highlights a gender bias regarding what the judicial system considered punishable. She points out that, just as bigamy was usually criminalised for men, adultery was usually criminalised for women. Bjerg's argument mobilises three concepts: revenge, shame and compassion. These concepts explain the drifts in the treatment of ‘male honour’ when it was called into question. For Bjerg, women's infidelity operates as an affective refuge in contexts of abuse. The difficulties of married life, accompanied by migration experiences, exacerbated conflicts between couples and, in other cases, perpetuated them.

The Argentine press in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is the focus of the chapter titled ‘The Anatomy of Everyday Hatred’. The author focused on the ‘crónica roja’ (sensationalist accounts of crimes) and how newspapers depicted violence in relationships, especially towards women. Many of the press records highlighted by Bjerg refer to rage as a driver of violence. In this sense, the author distinguishes two ways in which rage was used as a relevant judicial argument. In some cases, men used rage as a way of justifying extreme acts of violence; but in other cases, they asserted their right to exercise violence against their partners, excusing themselves in their right to be obeyed.

‘The Passion of Jealousy’, Chapter 5, deals with acts of extreme violence. Bjerg argues that, at the turn of the twentieth century, love was considered a ‘two-faced emotion’ (p. 87). On the one hand, love represented a path to happiness, but, on the other, it was understood as the cause of madness and jealousy. This twofold conceptualisation allowed for a tension ‘between admonition and sympathy’ (p. 88) to exist in the social and judicial context when gender-based violence occurred. Both the press and the judiciary often justified ill-treatment with the argument of love. In the face of infidelity or disobedience, the author suggests that men reacted based on the cultural notions of honour, love, jealousy and violence available to them at the time. In some cases, these feelings led to extreme violence and hatred, even murder.

The final chapter, ‘Killing for Love’, narrates in a micro-historical form a court case about a man who killed his partner. The man claimed the woman was unfaithful and a prostitute. Throughout the trial, the man reaffirmed his love for the victim but at the same time justified his crime and explained by pointing to her insubordination. The court dismissed his argument. This is the only court case narrated in the book in which the protagonists were not officially married. The author reflects on the status attributed to marriage in the eyes of the judicial apparatus. Furthermore, in this chapter, Bjerg reflects on how patriarchal culture facilitated abusive behaviour towards women.

Bjerg succeeds in harmoniously developing the central themes and concepts that regulate the emotional field of immigrants in Argentina. Her work articulates social, economic and cultural aspects of Latin American migration in the past that allow it to be evaluated from gender perspectives. In addition, Bjerg manages to build a history of emotions that dialogues with the most recent research in this field. In this sense, it is remarkable how the author links the intimate experiences of migrants with the social conditions they inhabited. There are no equivalent analyses, from historiography, in other Latin American countries. Therefore, this study can inspire future comparative studies on the emotional standards of migration of other immigrant communities, both in Argentina and in other Latin American countries. Consequently, this book constitutes an essential historiographical contribution to migration studies and studies on emotions and cultural diversity in Latin America.