Dominican liberal thinkers of the nineteenth century have received relatively little attention from historians and political scientists, partially because they remained, for the most part, at the margins of political power. Conversely, the nineteenth-century caudillos, mainly Pedro Santana, Buenaventura Báez, and Ulises Heureaux, have been the objects of much greater scholarly attention. After publishing biographical works on Heureaux (1987) and Báez (1990), Mu-Kien Adriana Sang has turned her attention to Ulises Francisco Espaillat, one of the Dominican Republic’s most influential liberals of the nineteenth century. Her book provides a much-needed view of the liberal strain in Dominican history.
In Una utopía inconclusa, Sang seeks to provide an international background to the ideas and actions of Espaillat and his fellow liberals. The book’s first part is devoted in its entirety to tracing the development of liberal and positivistic ideas in Europe, North America, and Latin America. These introductory chapters offer...
