How to Write the History of the New World

by Canizares-Esguerra, Jorge

• ISBN13: 9780804740845
• ISBN10: 0804740844
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-07-01
• Publisher: Stanford Univ Pr

Summary

An Economist Book of the Year, 2001. In the 18th century, a debate ensued over the French naturalist Buffon' s contention that the New World was in fact geologically new. Historians, naturalists, and philosophers clashed over Buffon' s view. 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 New World and its people. In addressing this question, the author offers a strikingly novel interpretation of the Enlightenment.

Author Biography

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

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. xvii
Introduction	p. 1
Toward a New Art of Reading and New Historical Interpretations	p. 11
Philosophical Travelers and the Humanist Art of Reading	p. 13
Compilations of Travel Narratives	p. 22
Cornelius de Pauw's New Art of Reading	p. 26
The Critique of Classical Analogies in the Historiography of the New World	p. 38
Conjectural and Philosophical Histories of America	p. 44
Amerindians as Evidence	p. 49
The Pursuit of Objectivity	p. 51
New Similes, Same Historiography	p. 55
Changing European Interpretations of the Reliability of Indigenous Sources	p. 60
Primitive Scripts, Reliable Historical Documents	p. 63
Philology, Collation, and Translation	p. 70
Images as Sources in the Early Modern European World	p. 88
Curiosities, Renaissance Humanists, and Amerindian Scripts	p. 92
Conjectural Histories of Writing	p. 95
Natural Histories of the Mind	p. 111
Amerindian Sources in Eighteenth-Century European Historiography	p. 114
Historiography and Patriotism in Spain	p. 130
The Travails of Lorenzo Boturini	p. 135
Boturini's Idea de una nueva historia general de la America Septentrional	p. 136
Clashing Patriotic Agendas	p. 142
Boturini's Ciclografia	p. 148
Empires Are Lost or Won in the Struggle over Naming and Remembering	p. 155
The Royal Academy of History and the History of the New World, 1755-1770	p. 160
The First Debate	p. 161
The Council of the Indies and the Academy	p. 163
The Second Debate	p. 166
The Archive of the Indies	p. 170
The Reception of Robertson's History of America	p. 171
Footnoting Robertson's History	p. 174
The Anonymous Review	p. 178
Juan Nuix's Riflessioni imparziali	p. 182
Ramon Diosdado Caballero	p. 186
Juan Bautista Munoz	p. 190
Why Create Archives?	p. 193
Munoz's History	p. 196
Crisis in the Academy	p. 197
Francisco Iturri's Critique	p. 199
Conclusion	p. 201
The Making of a "Patriotic Epistemology"	p. 204
Patriotic Epistemology: An Overview	p. 206
The Making of Patriotic Epistemology: Mexico, 1750-1780	p. 210
Juan Jose de Eguiaray Eguren	p. 210
Mariano Fernandez de Echeverriay Veytia	p. 213
Three Processes of Distortion	p. 217
Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl	p. 221
Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri	p. 225
Jose Joaquin Granados y Galvez	p. 230
Creole Jesuits in Exile	p. 234
Francisco Xavier Clavijero	p. 235
Juan de Velasco	p. 249
Juan Ignacio Molina	p. 253
Pedro Jose Marquez	p. 254
Jose Lino Fabrega	p. 258
Manco Capac: The Ultimate Sage	p. 261
Whose Enlightenment Was It Anyway?	p. 266
The Stones: Interpreting the Spanish-American Enlightenment	p. 268
Antonio de Leon y Gama's Descripcion historica	p. 271
Jose Antonio de Alzate y Ramirez's Misgivings	p. 281
Alzate y Ramirez on Xochicalco	p. 284
Alzate y Ramirez's Critique of Leon y Gama	p. 286
Leon y Gama's Reply	p. 287
Lizards and Epistemology	p. 291
A General Key to Mesoamerican Hieroglyphs?	p. 292
Why Did Boturini's Collection Never Reach Madrid?	p. 300
Our Lady of Guadalupe as Neoplatonic Seal and Mesoamerican Glyph	p. 305
Jose Ignacio Borunda's Clave general de geroglificos americanos	p. 306
Borunda on the Stones	p. 309
Christian Icons and Nahua Glyphs	p. 312
The Ruins of Palenque	p. 321
The Parish Priest and the Governor	p. 322
Antonio Bernasconi's Expedition to Palenque	p. 325
Antonio del Rio's Expedition to Palenque	p. 328
Interpreting Palenque	p. 330
Interpreting the Provanza de Votan	p. 333
Pablo Felix Cabrera's Theatro critico americano	p. 334
A Biblical Exegesis of the Popol Vuh	p. 338
Conclusion	p. 346
Notes	p. 349
Bibliography	p. 403
Index	p. 439
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