New Revised Edition for 2012! Delving into five hundred years of political, social, and cultural mores, the author offers a chronology of the evolution of the Tango as intricate as the dance itself. Readers are invited into a world as remarkable as it is compelling. The Tango originated in the slums of Buenos Aires as a partnered dance between two men and evolved into the most sophisticated, elegant and physically demanding social dance. Originally relegated to the lower classes, it eventually earned its place as a respected art form, embraced by millions of dancers and spectators around the world. From Argentina's early colonial period of the 16th century through civil and world wars, the rise and fall of dictatorships and democracies, to its years of near-disappearance and then resurrection, the history and mystic of tango has been captured in this meticulously researched book.