Spanish Colonialism and the Production of Knowledge. A Review of Christopher Schmidt-Nowara's <em>The Conquest of History: Spanish Colonialism and National Histories in the Nineteenth Century</em> (Pittsburgh: U of Pittsburgh P, 2007)

Authors

  • Alejandra Bronfman University of British Columbia

Keywords:

colonialism, imperialism, Spanish imperialism, knowledge

Abstract

Beginning with the premise that colonialism and the production of knowledge are intimately related, Christopher Schmidt-Nowara’s interests in this book lie in the versions of national and imperial histories elaborated by nineteenth-century Spanish and Antillean intellectuals. The production of knowledge and memory is a rich field that has recently begun to receive attention from historians of Iberian empires and Latin American and Caribbean nations. This welcome addition to that field aspires to be truly Atlantic in its perspective, not only by paying attention to history-writing on both sides of the ocean, but also by demonstrating the ways in which Spanish and Antillean intellectuals constituted a real field of dialogue and inquiry. Ambitiously, Schmidt-Nowara also includes the Philippines in his purview, underscoring the expansive nature of Spanish imperialism.

Author Biography

Alejandra Bronfman, University of British Columbia

Alejandra Bronfman obtuvo su doctorado en historia en la Universidad de Princeton (2000) y actualmente es profesora en la Universidad de British Columbia. Es autora del libro Measures of Equality: Social Science, Citizenship and Race in Cuba, 1902-1940 (University of North Carolina Press, 2004) y de numerosos artículos sobre la historia social y cultural de Cuba, incluyendo “The Allure of Technology: Photographs, Statistics and the Elusive Female Criminal in 1930s Cuba,” Gender and History (April 2007); “Poetry in the Presidio: Towards a Study of Fernado Ortiz's Proyecto de Código Criminal Cubano”, en Mauricio Font y Alfonso Quiroz, eds. Cuban Counterpoints: The Legacy of Fernando Ortiz (New York: Lexington Press, 2005); and “’En plena libertad y democracia’: Negros Brujos and the Social Question, 1904-1919”, Hispanic American Historical Review (August, 2002). Trabaja actualmente en un proyecto sobre la historia de la radio en el Caribe.

Published

2007-08-01

How to Cite

Bronfman, A. (2007). Spanish Colonialism and the Production of Knowledge. A Review of Christopher Schmidt-Nowara’s <em>The Conquest of History: Spanish Colonialism and National Histories in the Nineteenth Century</em> (Pittsburgh: U of Pittsburgh P, 2007). A Contracorriente: Una Revista De Estudios Latinoamericanos, 5(1), 366–369. Retrieved from https://acontracorriente.chass.ncsu.edu/index.php/acontracorriente/article/view/399

Issue

Section

Reviews: Empire & Colonialism