| dc.description.abstract | This study considers the life, thought, and work of Lucas Alaman, Mexican statesman
and historian of the early nineteenth century, as seen by historians from his time to
the present with reference to his political attitudes, his political activities, and the
political philosophy revealed in his historical writings, with note also of his economic
and cultural concerns. Other Mexican thinkers and leaders of the period wanted to
cast off the Spanish past, whereas Alaman believed that the Mexican future should be
built on that past. Considered by some the greatest mind of the era, even his enemies
acknowledged his brilliance and erudition, but they considered him to be an
unreconstructed reactionary. Most historians, however, have noted that, in such fields
as education and economics, Alaman was years ahead of his time, that in many areas
he was creative and innovative. It is the thesis of this paper that, in the consensus of
the historians, Alaman was shaped by the enlightened and progressive, yet
authoritarian regimes of the last Bourbon kings of Spain; that his ultimate
commitment was a patriotic loyalty to Mexico, which nation he believed best served
by law and order and peace under the exclusive and paternalistic control of an
authoritarian central government. The historical evidence, as a whole, is compatible
with the thesis. | en_US |
