Book review of: Camilo Mason y Marcelo Rougier (Coords.). A las palabras se las lleva el viento, lo escrito queda. Las revistas en los orígenes de la profesionalización del campo de la economía (1956-1966). Buenos Aires: Imago Mundi, 2023, pp. 463

Abstract

The second volume of "A las palabras se las lleva el viento, lo escrito queda" (Words Are Carried Away by the Wind, What Is Written Remains) reinforces the history of economics journals begun in the previous publication, which focused on the Peronist period (1945-1955). This time, the period from 1956 to 1966 is not justified by the political emergence of the Peronist movement as the first, but rather by the public, institutional, and professional consolidation of economics as an independent discipline. The professionalization of economics during these years was strengthened in universities, political institutions, and independent research centers with the establishment of the first economics degree programs. In terms of the economic situation, the period was characterized by the stop-go economic model, where the external sector acted as the primary constraint. Other relevant issues included the role of foreign ownership of businesses, the promotion of strategic industries, military oppression, the orthodoxy-heterodoxy debate, and weak institutional frameworks. In short, these were the beginnings of the import substitution industrialization model in its heavy phase.