A Beautiful Class, An Irresistible Democracy: The Historical Formation of the Middle Class in Bogota, 1955-1965

Abstract

"A Beautiful Class, an Irresistible Democracy" historicizes the (transnational) formation of the middle class in Bogotá, Colombia from the 1950s through the 1960s. Specifically, the dissertation asks how certain historical actors--architects, dentists, social workers, agronomists, rural specialists and accountants--not only cultivated a sense of self-understanding as middle class but also campaigned for the materialization of a democratic project of hierarchical rule as middle class. Furthermore, it interrogates how this complex project was critically constructed within a context of U.S. imperial expansion, the advance of international development agencies and foundations, as well as the growth of the Colombia state during the consolidation of the political coalition known as the National Front.