Finchelstein demonstrates how a unique set of conditions in Argentina throughout the 1900s led to the massive state-sanctioned violence committed against Argentine citizens and others during the military dictatorship of 1976 to 1983. Finchelstein explains, “Fascism was a global experience but in Argentina it was essentially inscribed in national intellectual and political traditions. . . . ‘Christianized fascism’ was the Argentine response to democracy, the left, and liberalism” (10).

One factor was the collusion between the Catholic Church and the military, combined with long-held and widespread anti-Semitism, homophobia, sexism, racism, and prejudice against all groups identified as other. Another, creating a volatile mix, was the Argentine military and government leaders' admiration for Franco, Mussolini, and Hitler. Together, these created a national culture in which many citizens accepted the rhetoric of right-wing government, military, and religious leaders as they labeled left-leaning national opponents to their ideologies as international enemies. The Catholic Church was at the forefront of the repression. “Violence represented a purifying end in that it was thought of as being called for by God, who was also conceived of as Argentine” (50). Even at the moment that victims were first abducted, they were taken in the name of a Christian God. “It seems that the torturers proved their loyalty to the Cross and the Sword by shouting, while performing kidnappings, ‘For God and the Homeland!’ During one of the kidnappings, the perpetrators wrote on the walls of the victim's home, ‘Long Live Christ the King’ and ‘Christ Saves’” (132).

During the dictatorship, Church leaders often witnessed the torture, assuring the perpetrators that they had a responsibility to commit the violence in order to purge the victims and the country of this evil. “Monsignor Emilio Grasselli, secretary of the military vicariate, kept files with information on the disappeared. He presented victims' relatives with fictionalized versions of the concentration camps as well as with an ideological defense of the dictatorship that justified the death of those who could not be reformed or saved” (130). In most Latin American countries that experienced dictatorships during the same period, the Church did what it could to protect survivors of human rights violations and the families of victims and oppose the state-sanctioned violence. The situation was different in Argentina. “The intimacy between God and the military nation was emphasized at the time, and Pope Francis, who as Father Bergoglio was the most important Jesuit in the country, never spoke out against this” (2).

Given the Church's endorsement of the dictatorship, many Argentines supported it or at least did not oppose it. “The combination of ideological and practical support for the repression was matched by the widespread passive acceptance of the crimes. This combination of support and indifference was a key factor in making the systematic killing of thousands of Argentine citizens a historical reality” (160).

There were external contributors to the dictatorship as well. “In 1976, at a meeting in Chile between Henry Kissinger and Admiral César Guzzetti, Kissinger was perfectly clear on the position of the US government. He told Guzzetti that it was necessary to find a quick ‘solution’ to the problem of the ‘subversives’ before Jimmy Carter took office in 1977” (124). But there was also a strong base among Argentines. “The dictatorship enjoyed widespread civilian support. In March of 1976 with the coup, in 1978 with the World Cup, and in 1982 with the Malvinas / Falklands War, the dictatorship was as popular as Perón's regime had been in the 1940s and early 1950s” (124–125).

Finchelstein concludes, “This investigation set out to study the powerful influence of the nacionalista and fascist prism on twentieth-century Argentine history. The fact that many aspects of this ideology are still felt in the country, mostly by its past and present victims, shows that the nacionalista fiction about the country's reality was ultimately accepted by many” (162). Finchelstein's research is comprehensive and compelling. This is a significant volume for anyone interested in the conditions that allow for repressive and fascist regimes. It is a crucial book for those who want to understand Argentine history, especially the 1976–83 dictatorship and its legacy.