This book sheds new light on the first Peronist era in Argentina, and in the process reconsiders a classic subject in Latin American history: namely, the relationship between intellectuals and the state. To be sure, previous works have established the basic parameters of this topic in Argentina: most of the country's leading intellectuals greeted Peronism with initial scepticism if not outright hostility, reactions that only intensified as the regime tightened control of the media and public sphere. The paradigmatic example (with which the book begins) is Jorge Luis Borges, a lifelong anti-Peronist who was famously transferred from his post in a public library to that of municipal market poultry inspector after Perón's election. Fiorucci's study, however, makes a series of important interventions that allow a fuller understanding of the origins and development of these frictions. It demonstrates convincingly that beyond the familiar anecdotes about Borges and his peers lies a more complex historical process, one shaped by competing interests within intellectual and government institutions, shifting partisan strategies and even failed attempts at alliance-building. Her skilful study does not discount the existence of antagonism, but rather explores in greater depth than ever before the unfolding of the intellectual/state desentendimiento (p. 12).

One of this study's main strengths is precisely the range of different aspects of intellectual life that it examines. Intelectuales y peronismo begins by looking at the cultural policies of Peronist bureaucracies such as the Subsecretaria de Cultura and the diverse objectives of these authorities, including the somewhat paradoxical embrace of existing norms of ‘high culture’ by state officials within a ‘populist’ movement. From the state the book transitions to civil society, and in particular to the leading intellectual representative body, the Sociedad Argentina de Escritores (Argentine Society of Writers, SADE). In her detailed analysis of the SADE's internal politics, Fiorucci suggests that the organisation adopted a lower profile in opposition to the national government than one might expect. Although the SADE acted as a forum for anti-Peronist members to vent frustrations, its leadership sought above all to preserve institutional survival in a time of expanding state power.

Moving outward from these institutional contexts, the book considers the competing positions adopted by intellectuals. Chapter 3 breaks new ground by investigating the cohort of intellectuals who went against prevailing tendencies and allied themselves with the Peronist movement. In looking at these less celebrated figures, the author provides a sense of what attracted writers from backgrounds as disparate as the ultra-Catholic Right and the progressive wing of the Radical Party to join Perón's government. On this front Peronist authorities encountered serious limitations (which, incidentally, belies the image of totalitarian command put forth by critics). Ideological and professional divisions among intellectual loyalists hampered state-backed attempts to create a Peronist rival to the SADE. The remainder of the study delves into areas more familiar in studies of Peronism, such as the role played by celebrated journals like Sur and Imago Mundi as outlets for anti-Peronist thought. But here, too, Intelectuales y peronismo supplies fresh insights by analysing the verbal codes and postures used by anti-Peronist writers to express opposition and, following Perón's 1955 overthrow, to lend legitimacy to the Revolución Libertadora.

An emphasis on the dynamic nature of intellectual–state relations runs throughout these chapters. The author stresses the importance of the ideological polarisation of intellectual life that occurred just prior to the Peronist era (thanks largely to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War). The anti-fascist stance of many (but by no means all) Argentine intellectuals clearly framed their response to the military-led June Revolution of 1943, from which key players in the Peronist movement would later emerge. But Fiorucci suggests that, despite the weight of this past, the confrontation between Perón's government and intellectuals was not set in stone. State officials sought, in often incomplete and contradictory ways, to woo intellectuals (at least until 1950, a turning point that saw a hardening of state cultural policy). In seeking to define their status as modern intellectuals in a post-war world, anti-Peronist letrados were themselves divided over how to express opposition.

This study manages to cover much ground in a concise manner, but certain issues remain open for further research. The author touches on but does not fully investigate the impact of historical actors outside Argentina's national territory (and here one thinks of writers in exile abroad and the opinions levelled by foreign intellectuals concerning Peronist rule). Likewise, questions remain about the broader political implications of the intellectual–state antagonism: how did other opposition groups engage with anti-Peronist intellectuals, and how did (and did not) Peronists marshal ‘anti-intellectualism’ in mass political efforts to court and express popular support? Nevertheless, Fiorucci's book illuminates key issues crucial to understanding the intellectual and political history of Peronist Argentina. The fact that similar controversies over free speech, propaganda and the mass media continue to animate disputes between intellectuals and the state in contemporary Argentina – not to mention numerous other countries in the region – lends an additional attraction to this insightful study of the Peronist past.