The figure of Juan Manuel de Rosas dominates the history of Argentina in the first half of the nineteenth century. The present book studies the forces which made and sustained Rosas, and examines through him the roots of the caudillo tradition in Argentina.

Argentine Caudillo provides a detailed study of the use of state terror as an instrument of policy, one of the few such studies for any period of Latin American history. There is no book which duplicates this work either inside Argentina or outside.

Carefully preserving the identity of its predecessor, the new edition updates the background history and adjusts to recent trends in the study of the Rosas period concerning the estancia and agrarian regime, the political ideology of Rosas, the family, and community bases of power.