"The Barracks Receives Spoiled Children and Returns Men”: Debating Military Service, Masculinity and Nation-Building in Argentina, 1901–1930

This essay explores how military conscription functioned in Argentina and how different sectors of society accepted, interpreted, and debated it during the first three decades of the twentieth century. Argentina’s state reformers envisioned conscription as a crucial tool, not only for military defense but also for the geographic, social, and political integration of the republic. The essay's description of the humiliations to body and psyche reflected widely held beliefs, especially among the urban working classes, about obligatory military service.