The influence of liberals and liberal ideas in Spain and Spanish America in the early nineteenth century has attracted the scholarly attention of numerous writers, as the extensive notes to Roberto Breña’s rather weighty book clearly reveal. That historiographical presence lies behind the book’s aim, which is also evident in its title. This is not a presentation of new details derived from an extensive search through the archives; rather, it is a review of the existing literature on Hispanic liberalism. Consequently, much of what is discussed in both text and notes is a critique of past and present writers. For example, the author devotes large sections of one chapter to two Spanish liberal writers, Álvaro Flórez Estrada and José María Blanco White, and smaller sections of other chapters to selected writings by Simón Bolívar, Mariano Moreno, Bernardo Monteagudo, and others. All of them, in Breña’s eyes, have shortcomings with regard...
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