Abstract
In Harbinger of Modernity: Marcos Aguinis and the Democratization of Argentina, Dalia Wassner presents an integrated analysis of the civic work and literary oeuvre of Marcos Aguinis, who served as Secretary of Culture during Argentina’s transition from dictatorship to democracy. Situating his writings in their historical and intellectual context, Wassner explores Aguinis’s engagement with the dialectic of modernization as a Jewish public intellectual equally dedicated to fostering Argentine democracy and to inscribing himself in the annals of westernization. Encompassing intellectual history, literary criticism, Latin American history, and Jewish studies, Wassner’s work illuminates the intersecting roles of Jews and public intellectuals in bringing democracy to post-dictatorship Argentina.