As many democracies have gone into a reverse tide of illiberalism, the concept of populism has enjoyed a resurgence. From Venezuela to Turkey, the United States of America to Hungary, seismic social, cultural and political shifts are neatly bundled and explained as ‘populism’. The polarisation and conflict that fuel and follow from populist responses feed the fad for quantifying populist tendencies and actions, with the distant exercise of counting, codifying and pooling assumed to contribute to our capacity to anticipate, identify and address populist tendencies – or at least have the opportunity to look at an interesting data set.
In this context, the most salient contribution of Evita: The Life of Eva Perón is to re-orient us back to engagement with the sentiments, sounds, hopes and searing tensions that pervade societies and cultures on the cusp of transformation. The author steers us away from the usual trawl of explanatory variables that shape assessment of populism – institutions, party systems – and to engagement with people, personalities and circumstance. The approach is valuable in reminding us of the importance of understanding how social groups come to trust random, ‘outsider’ individuals by forcing us to better appreciate the actors themselves – with all of their contradictions, frailties and inconsistencies.
Jill Hedges frames her assessment by acknowledging that Evita is a deeply polarising figure, and that this in turn ‘obscures a remarkable career’ (p. 7). Gently putting aside tired stereotypes, unflattering biographies and layers of myth, Hedges explains Evita's potent combination of ambition, idealism, tenacity, impetuosity and – as emerges very strongly from this reading – unswerving commitment to social justice, as rooted in Evita's own background that is lucidly detailed by the author. At the same time, the ‘dangers of untrammelled power’ of non-elected office are highlighted but in the skilfully elaborated context of the deprivation and marginalisation of Evita's core – and at that time, disarticulated constituency.
Through a richly textured and vivid narrative, Hedges enables the reader to understand the windows of opportunity that vacuums and voids serendipitously provide for some actors. Here is the story of ‘how an ordinary person can do extraordinary things’, colourfully told through the lens of cultural change and, in particular, the rise of radio as a mechanism for social mobility and political mobilisation. To her discussion of Evita's youthful ambitions, early career path and social networks, Hedges brings an evident affection and deep knowledge of Argentina, of its geographical diversity, class antagonisms, harsh social norms and evolving culture. She writes empathically of the challenges posed by provincial isolation, illegitimacy and the ‘boundless contempt’ of elite classes, positioning the reader almost alongside Evita in the aspiring actress's youthful quest to relocate to Buenos Aires (at age 15 years) and find employment in the exploding broadcast, theatre and music scene.
As Hedges reminds us, Evita was just 26 years old when her husband was elected to the Argentine presidency in June 1946, thrusting the young but somewhat talentless actress into the world of protocol, dignified dressing and a discreet burying of her Vaudevillian past. In Chapters 4 and 5, the figure of Colonel Juan Domingo Perón is introduced and the circumstances of his rapid political ascent from the initially insignificant post of Secretary of Labour and Social Security (December 1943) to Minister of War (February 1944) to Vice President (July 1944) detailed. The stars of both Evita and Perón, whom she first met at a fundraising gala for the January 1944 San Juan earthquake, rose exponentially in a compressed period of time driven by the astute building of a political base among the industrial labour sector and following the granting of female suffrage in September 1947. In her account of the nascent but subsequently visceral conflict that has pitted pro- and anti-Peronist elements for decades, Hedges neatly contrasts the energy and resilience of organised labour and working-class women against the resistance, sexism and snobbery of the traditional elite of Argentina, from business leaders and landlords to ‘well-heeled’ protestors, from the Catholic Church to the pervasively present military.
Chapters 11 and 12 detail Evita at the height of her political influence within the Peronist Women's Movement and the Eva Perón Foundation. Hedges focuses on the merging of Evita's public and private roles, the gruelling schedule of engagements maintained by the First Lady and the increasingly distinct paths and responsibilities assumed by President Perón and his wife. But Evita's ‘fatal preoccupation’ (p. 183) with work meant that, according to her doctor, ‘unconsciously, she committed suicide’ (p. 181), ignoring haemorrhaging, acute gynaecological pain and anaemia. Her death in July 1952 came at a time of deepening political tension between the Peronist base and its leadership, as Evita's popularity was overshadowing that of her husband, as the military were preparing to move against Perón and as the strong performance of the economy in the aftermath of World War 2 was going into reverse. She died at the height of her popularity and before association with decline. Chapter 15 details the frustrated efforts of the military that displaced Perón and seized power in September 1955 to prevent Evita's resting place from becoming a shrine of grieving and agitation – by dispatching her corpse first to Milan, then on to Madrid. Finally repatriated in 1975, Evita and her symbolism have, according to Hedges, been most particularly resurrected by the administrations of Néstor Kirchner (2003–7) and his successor and wife Cristina (2007–15).
Evita is an engaging and accessible read that is delightful in its evocation of mid-century Argentina. Neither blinding the reader with complex equations of power nor boring with long trawls through institutional fragility, this exploration of populism locates the study of enduring, iconic leadership in the details of personality and cultural circumstance.
