The Conquest of History - (Pitt Latin American) by Christopher Schmidt-Nowara (Paperback)

About the Book

By exploring controversies such as the veracity of the Black Legend, the location of Christopher Columbus's mortal remains, and the survival of indigenous cultures, this study shows how recorded history became implicated in the struggles over empire.

Book Synopsis

As Spain rebuilt its colonial regime in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines after the Spanish American revolutions, it turned to history to justify continued dominance. The metropolitan vision of history, however, always met with opposition in the colonies.

The Conquest of History examines how historians, officials, and civic groups in Spain and its colonies forged national histories out of the ruins and relics of the imperial past. By exploring controversies over the veracity of the Black Legend, the location of Christopher Columbusu2019s mortal remains, and the survival of indigenous cultures, Christopher Schmidt-Nowarau2019s richly documented study shows how history became implicated in the struggles over empire. It also considers how these approaches to the past, whether intended to defend or to criticize colonial rule, called into being new postcolonial histories of empire and of nations.

Review Quotes

A commendable piece of scholarship which argues something genuinely new by mixing an impressively broad canvas and a fascinating wealth of detail. An elegant, rich and convincing argument for a need to reappraise a neglected period and occasionally misunderstood processes.-- "Journal of Latin American Studies"

A major contribution to our understanding of the relation between history and nationalism in Europe, the Americas, and Asia. It is a global history in the best sense, not a random comparison, but a connected history.-- "James E. Sanders, Utah State University"

First-class, a pleasure to read. The Conquest of History openly challenges recent studies on memory and historiography in Spanish nation-building, which have managed to ignore the colonial dimensions of the nation; it contributes to current scholarship on nations as imagined communities and to the field of postcolonial studies; finally, it sheds light on the origins of the discourse on 'mestizaje.' Filled with fresh insights, this book is an important contribution to the fields of cultural history, nation-building studies, and Atlantic (and Filipino) history.-- "Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra, University of Texas at Austin"

Innovative, thought-provoking and already indispensable.-- "Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies"

Schmidt-Nowara engagingly examines different ways Spanish intellectuals approached their country's colonial experience and the often antithetical arguments made by intellectuals in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. Well written and documented, this study is valuable for historians of ideas and the writing of history, as well as historians of Spain and Spanish America. Highly recommended.-- "Choice"

Schmidt-Nowara's excellent and persuasively argued book pushes the limits of empire studies, particularly through the examination of nation-building outside of a nationalist context. Fundamentally, this is a study of the art of interpretation and a clear example of the ways that textual and discourse analysis are ideological arms in the battle for the control over recounting the past. This book is essential for anyone interested in empire studies, comparative colonial studies, or the literature and culture of the Spanish, Philippine, or Antillean nineteenth century.-- "Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies"

Succeeds in approaching history from both a metropolitan and a colonial perspective, not privileging either. The result is a rich analysis that demonstrates the centrality of the colonial experience to the development of national identities in both metropolis and colony.-- "Caribbean Studies"

About the Author

Christopher Schmidt-Nowara is associate professor of history at Fordham University. He is the author of Empire and Antislavery: Spain, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, 1833-1874 and coeditor, with John Nieto-Phillips, of Interpreting Spanish Colonialism: Empires, Nations, and Legends.