Immigration and Nationalism: Argentina and Chile, 1890-1914 . By Carl Solberg. (Austin: The University of Texas Press, 1970. Pp. xi, 222. $6.50).

Around the fascinating and little-studied theme of immigration into southern South America, Professor Solberg has woven a useful and often stimulating description of attitudes and conditions at the beginning of the twentieth century. Unfortunately the juxtaposition of these two highly dissimilar countries, especially for so brief a period, does not always clarify the issues. In his effort to relate the flow of newcomers to the rising spirit of nationalism in both countries, Solberg throws out some startling hypotheses. Thus the claims that the upper classes increasingly discredited immigration and propagated nationalism, ". . . not out of ethnic or religious prejudice but because immigration was threatening their power and status " (p. x). In a burst of enthusiasm he suggests incredible upward mobility with the statement: " By 1914 they [European immigrants] were becoming affluent property owners and were seizing control of commerce and industry in both nations" (p. 33). Has the author, strongly influenced by his newspaper and literary sources, mistaken individualized reactions against foreign economic penetration for an elitist reaction against the immigrant mass? Or did the myriad of small shop-keepers and craftsmen in the cities indeed pose any threat to the ruling elite? The suggestion that elites can manipulate nationalism to their exclusive interests may sound tempting, but such oversimplification tends to distort the complex processes at work in the two countries. Furthermore, the stereotype of " oligarch" hardly clarifies the wide range of attitudes and values expressed by the elites in Argentina and Chile.