1976 marked a turning point in Argentina’s recent history. It was a year seared into memory by a civil-military coup that ushered in the darkest night: the national government turned into the executioner of its own people.

With his lucid insight, and drawing—among other testimonies and sources—on recently declassified documents and archives, Felipe Pigna analyzes in 76 the most significant events of this first year of the military dictatorship. Undoubtedly central to this narrative is the implementation of an impoverishing economic plan that could not be carried out without fierce, centralized, and systematic repression. A machinery of death that had been brewing long before the coup, activated by a segment of civil society in collusion with the Armed Forces. But also—and this is where *76* becomes a necessary book—this meticulous work sheds light on what was beating in the shadows: the resistance of culture, of the labor movement, of student organizations, and of human rights groups.

Closer to the idea of “understanding” than of “justifying,” Felipe Pigna keeps alive, in his new book, the memory of those who, despite everything, knew—and know—that there is always a tomorrow.