The Historical Work of Jose Manuel Estrada (1842-1894) in Argentina in the Decades of the 1860s and 1870s

Abstract

This article analyzes the public and intellectual trajectory of Argentine author José Manuel Estrada (1842-1894) as a historian in the decades of the 1860s and 1870s. It first examines the texts that, albeit partially, have looked into this facet of his work. Then, it considers the main problems that guided his inquiries into the past: the legacies of the colonial period and of the revolution, the bonds between caudillos and the society, the centralization of power, the state of the countryside and the ways of writing history. The article also presents the evaluations of some of Estrada’s contemporaries regarding his work, and emphasizes the particularities of his writings that may explain the lack of attention they have received subsequently, despite the fact that they were valued in their time.