Manuel Belgrano, among leaders of Latin American independence, enjoys little recognition outside his native Argentina, and his two notable military victories—the battles of Tucumán (September 1812) and Salta (February 1813)—served to staunch a disastrous retreat rather than crown an advance into newly liberated territory. Yet few matched the full range of his accomplishments, for he was not just another improvised military commander but a trained lawyer, enlightened economist, publicist, bureaucrat, diplomat, and even flag designer. Although his gifts as a correspondent do not equal those of, say, Simón Bolívar, this new and expanded edition of his Epistolario is a welcome addition to the historical literature on independence.
The bulk of the volume’s contents are the same as in the Epistolario Belgraniano published by the Academia Nacional de la Historia in 1970. That volume’s prologue by Ricardo R. Caillet-Bois (a brief recapitulation of Belgrano’s career) is reproduced, along with its collection...
