Rock, David 1945- (David Peter Rock)

PERSONAL:

Born April 8, 1945, in Blackburn, England; immigrated to the United States, 1977; son of William and Elsie Rock; married Rosalind Louise Farrar, August 3, 1968; children: Edward David. Education: St. John's College, Cambridge, 1967, M.A., 1970, Ph. D., 1971. Hobbies and other interests: Jogging, home carpentry, and collecting traditional craft artifacts.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Santa Barbara, CA. Office—Department of History, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106.

CAREER:

Rosegrove School, Burnley, England, teacher, 1964; Cambridge University, Cambridge, England, research officer at Centre of Latin American Studies, 1970-74; University of London, Institute of Latin American Studies, London, England, assistant secretary, 1974-77; University of California, Santa Barbara, associate professor, 1978-82, professor of history, 1982—. Instituto Torcuato Di Tella, Buenos Aires, Argentina, visiting professor, 1972; St. Antony's College, Oxford University, Oxford, England, senior visiting member, 1983. Senior international scholar, St. John's College, Cambridge University, Cambridge, England, 1999-2000; visiting scholar, University of London, 2005; Fulbright fellow, Universidad Torcuato di Tella, Buenos Aires, Brazil, 2006.

MEMBER:

Society of Latin American Studies, Latin American Studies Association, Conference on Latin American History.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Herbert E. Bolton Prize, Conference on Latin American History, 1976, for Politics in Argentina, 1890-1930: The Rise and Fall of Radicalism.

WRITINGS:

Politics in Argentina, 1890-1930: The Rise and Fall of Radicalism, Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, England), 1975.

(Editor, contributor, and author of introduction) Argentina in the Twentieth Century, University of Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, PA), 1975.

Argentina, 1516-1982: From Spanish Colonization to the Falklands War, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1985.

Authoritarian Argentina: The Nationalist Movement, Its History and Its Impact, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1993.

(Editor) Latin America in the 1940s: War and Postwar Transitions, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1994.

State Building and Political Movements in Argentina, 1860-1916, Stanford University Press (Stanford, CA), 2002.

Contributor to works by others, including El Poder militar en la Argentina, compiled by Peter Waldmann and Ernesto Garzon Valdes, Verlag Dieter Vervuert, 1982; The Political Economy of Argentina, 1870-1980, edited by DCM. Platt and Guido di Tella, Macmillan (London, England), 1985; and The Cambridge History of Latin America, Volume V, edited by Leslie Bethell, Cambridge University Press, 1985. Consulting editor, Cambridge University Press and University of California Press. Contributor of articles and book reviews to British, American, Dutch, and Latin American journals, including Journal of Latin American Studies, Desarrollo Economico, and Internationale Spectator.

SIDELIGHTS:

David Rock once told CA: "Latin America for me began in childhood dreams of color, romance, and exoticism. The adventure became possible in the late 1960s when the universities were offering student ships to the area; Argentina and Buenos Aires were the destination on the chance suggestion of a tutor at Cambridge. Eighteen years have elapsed, five lengthy research visits, and a move with my family from England to California.

"Along with all historians, I seek to rekindle a past reality (or many realities) and also to offer a picture to understand the present. The layman would probably judge Latin America as the embodiment of irrationality; I believe the opposite and feel that I may eventually be able to understand from history some of its rationale. Writing about and researching this region is also an oblique means to understand my own society.

"Since completing Argentina, 1516-1982: From Spanish Colonization to the Falklands War, I have begun to examine the Latin American philosophical and political tradition, using Latin American fascism in the 1930s as a case study. My great ambition is now to complete a large-scale history of Latin America, which like my earlier work will link current conditions in the region with historical beginnings and historical development."

Rock did go on to write a broad history with Latin America in the 1940s: War and Postwar Transitions, as well as other volumes focusing on Argentina, including State Building and Political Movements in Argentina, 1860-1916, in which he studies politics, nation building, and that country's economic development and the crisis of 1890. He clarifies many points in Argentine history, including that the 1887 Law of Guaranteed Banks did not favor centralization, as is commonly assumed, but allowed for the issuance of currency to provinces. Canadian Journal of History contributor David Sheinin wrote: "This book is an excellent historical synthesis of a period of tremendous political turmoil and change…. The author highlights a crucial paradox that guided the liberal leaders who envisioned and built the nation state from the 1830s through the 1870s." Other reviewers also offered favorable opinions. "Rock's narrative largely echoes those of Argentine historians," commented James P. Brennan in the Historian, "and anyone familiar with the Spanish-language scholarship will not be greatly surprised by most of his findings. Nonetheless, he does manage to offer some suggestive twists on the story."