La seducción de un orden: Las elites y la construcción de Chile en las polémicas culturales y políticas del siglo XIX

Chile in the 1840s witnessed a flurry of intellectual activity, helped no doubt by the relaxing of the most draconian phase of the Portalian period, as well as the contributions of many talented South Americans, including Andrés Bello, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, and Vicente Fidel López. Chileans responded well to the freer intellectual environment, enriching the vigorous press of the period, participating in political debates, and writing influential books and pamphlets. Some of the most significant figures of the nineteenth century, including José Victorino Lastarria, Francisco Bilbao, and many others, made their first appearance during this decade. The period has not lacked significant attention, beginning with Diego Barros Arana’s monumental Un decenio de la historia de Chile, 1841–1851 (1913); Norberto Pinilla’s La generación chilena de 1842 (1942); Bernardo Subercaseaux’s Cultura y sociedad liberal en el siglo XIX (1981); and Allen Woll’s A Functional Past (1982). Ana María Stuven offers a new...