How to Write the History of the New World : Histories, Epistemologies, and Identities in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World

Jorge Caņizares-Esguerra

ISBN 10: 0804746931 / ISBN 13: 9780804746939

Editore: Stanford University Press Apr 2002, 2002

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Neuware - In the mid-eighteenth century, the French naturalist Buffon contended that the New World was in fact geologically new-that it had recently emerged from the waters-and that dangerous miasmas had caused all organic life on the continents to degenerate. In the 'dispute of the New World' many historians, naturalists, and moral philosophers from Europe and the Americas (including Thomas Jefferson) sought either to confirm or refute Buffon's views. This book maintains that the 'dispute' was also a debate over historical authority: upon whose sources and facts should naturalists and historians reconstruct the history of the continent and its peoples.

Codice articolo 9780804746939

Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: How to Write the History of the New World : Histories, Epistemologies, and Identities in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World
• Editore: Stanford University Press Apr 2002
• Data di pubblicazione: 2002
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0804746931
• ISBN 13: 9780804746939
• Rilegatura: Taschenbuch
• Condizione: Neu
• Dimensioni: 228 L x 161 A x 27 P (millimetri) 228 millimetri di larghezza per 161 millimetri di altezza per 27 millimetri di profonditā
• Peso: 658 grammi

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto

In the mid-eighteenth century, the French naturalist Buffon contended that the New World was in fact geologically new—that it had recently emerged from the waters—and that dangerous miasmas had caused all organic life on the continents to degenerate. In the “dispute of the New World” many historians, naturalists, and moral philosophers from Europe and the Americas (including Thomas Jefferson) sought either to confirm or refute Buffon’s views. This book maintains that the “dispute” was also a debate over historical authority: upon whose sources and facts should naturalists and historians reconstruct the history of the continent and its peoples?

The author traces the cultural processes that led early-modern intellectuals on both sides of the Atlantic to question primary sources that had long been considered authoritative: Mesoamerican codices, early colonial Spanish chronicles, and travel accounts. In the process, he demonstrates how the writings of these critics led to the rise of the genre of conjectural history. The book also adds to the literature on nation formation by exploring the creation of specific identities in Spain and Spanish America by means of particular historical narratives and institutions. Finally, it demonstrates that colonial intellectuals went beyond mirroring or contesting European ideas and put forth daring and original critiques of European epistemologies that resulted in substantially new historiographical concepts.

Informazioni sugli autori

Jorge Caņizares-Esguerra is Assistant Professor of History at SUNY-Buffalo.

Jorge Caņizares-Esguerra is Assistant Professor of History at SUNY-Buffalo.