Bartolomé Mitre (1821-1906) was Argentina's first constitutional president and the leading historian of the country.

Son of a middle-rank Buenos Aires military officer, Bartolomé Mitre grew up in the disturbed era when dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas ruled Argentina. His father's changing assignments and the instability of the times prevented Mitre from receiving much formal education, but from his early years he showed a strong attachment to books and studies.

The family moved to Montevideo, Uruguay, and Mitre entered a military academy there. As a cadet, he fought in the recurring civil wars. More importantly, he joined the circle of exiles called the Generation of 1837, which sought the ouster of Rosas. Still in his teens, Mitre wrote poetry, literary criticism, essays, and drama, as well as polemical articles against Rosas. Political turmoil in Montevideo forced his departure, and he lived briefly in Bolivia and Chile, earning...