Objective/Context:

This work considers how historians have investigated the problem of the cost of living in twentieth-century Latin America. Their investigations have collectively expanded our sense of how social groups in different historical moments have imagined, calculated, and coped with the cost of living.

Methodology:

The article draws on a wide corpus of research from fields such as economic and labor history, as well as the study of the welfare state, nationalist movements, gender relations, consumption, and poverty. It incorporates findings from various case studies, including the author’s research on the First Peronism (1943-1955) in Argentina.

Originality:

The text identifies and explores three major tendencies in recent work on the cost of living in Latin America: the creation of new forms of social scientific expertise and knowledge about quotidian economic life; the political contests among a wide range of actors over living standards, inflation, and related concerns; and the impact of mass consumption on cost-of-living struggles and conceptions of social wellbeing.

Conclusions:

The article situates the studies in this dossier within a wider historiographical context while also pointing to future avenues of inquiry and cost of living issues that merit closer attention.

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