Of handles and baskets

4 hours writing, 0.5 hours reading, page count = 189

The heat is rising near the forge in this glass-blower's studio, but the vase is starting to take shape. One of the handles is in place, and I'm getting ready to shape the other one.

In terms of reading, I continued with the Southern Cone explanation, focusing on Argentina. There's a fair bit of disagreement about when state formation actually took place there, whether earlier or later in the 19th century. I tend to think it's later, because the centralization process really is complicated and difficult, especially for cash-strapped countries. I'm still not sure I understand exactly why Argentina went from being one of the richest countries in the world a century ago - on a part with Australia and Canada - to an economic basket case by mid-century. Politics and recurrent military coups are part of it, but there's more going on.