Two Latin American social scientists interviewing middle-class Argentines during the repressive military regime of the late 1970s discovered that those interviewed were generally uncritical of government actions and professedly ignorant or unconcerned about reported government abuses, including flagrant violations of human rights. Their hypothesis that the Argentine interviewees were not apathetic but rather cowed by pervasive fear led to a multidisciplinary, long-term research project, summarized in this volume, on the culture of fear, its effects on both perpetrators and victims, its legacy and how all that can be overcome. An innovative perspective on a deeply troubling chapter of Latin America's history.