19th Century Research Group. Reform and Revolution in Europe and America (1763-1918)

Description

Within the framework of a new cultural, political and social history, it is unavoidable to justify the creation of a Study Group focused on the European and American 19th century in the Department of Contemporary History of the Faculty of Geography and History. It is even more necessary if it is taken into account the history of the Department itself in the historiographical renewal of studies related to the crisis of the Ancien Régime, the subsequent revolutionary/counter-revolutionary upheavals and the development of the different political cultures of the nineteenth century.

The chronological scope refers, albeit rather loosely, to what Hobsbawm called "the long nineteenth century"; loosely because, although 1918 fits in with the end of an "era", the beginning of that era is traditionally placed in France in 1789, whereas we place it at the end of the Seven Years' War in 19763. This was the starting point of a process of change that would sweep along with it the main European monarchies (Portuguese, Spanish, English, French, etc.) and their colonial territories.

The consolidation of Great Britain as a major European power until almost the end of World War I was accompanied by the decline of other empires and monarchies, which had unusual and far-reaching effects on the international order. But the great changes, and thus the beginning of the contemporary era, did not only affect the European continent. The American territories were simultaneously the scene and protagonists of the processes of "reform and revolution" that have so often been approached from a unilateral Eurocentric perspective.

This motivates us to carry out the historical analysis from two perspectives: firstly, by integrating the contextualised study of discursive proposals with that of plural political practices and, where possible, with the actors' own experience. In a complementary way, secondly, by incorporating a comparative history in which, as we have already pointed out, the American approach is naturally integrated into the study of the historical processes of that long century. All of this from an interdisciplinary academic orientation that allows us to broaden the perspective of study to other areas of knowledge related, for example, to literature and its particular relationship with history. In this sense, cultural history, conceived in a broad sense, makes it possible to think about reality in a more complex and integrating way.

Goals CT

To privilege a comparative history between Europe and America that accounts for the permanent transfers in both directions.
To study how the feedback of the revolution-reaction axis shaped the formation of a large part of the nation-states on both sides of the Atlantic.
To analyse the emergence and development of the different political cultures of the nineteenth century, paying attention to the plurality of languages and origins.
To analyse how monarchical or historical legitimacy was combined with popular or revolutionary legitimacy in Europe and the consequences this had in America.
To investigate the emergence of different liberalisms and their connection, or not, with federal republicanism as an alternative in the Spanish-American republics.

Research lines

History and literature
Study of literature in any of its manifestations (novels, essays, theatre, poetry, literary journalism, memoirs, diaries, graphic novels, etc.), as working material for the contemporary historian, in order to analyse historical phenomena from an interdisciplinary perspective.
Comparative History Europe - America
The Revolution and the Reaction form an interwined axis that runs through the 19th century in both Europe and America. With this line of research we aim to cover other geographical areas in order to offer an integrated vision of the historical processes and of both realities as a meeting point.
Crisis of the Ancien Régime and the origins of liberal society
Study of the dialectics of continuity, reformism, rupture and revolution between the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. The study of behaviour and political logic of absolutism and the multiple discourses that emerged as alternatives to it are key.
Cultural history
The study of the production, dissemination and reception of material objects, ideas, artefacts and ideologies. Cultural history studies the past of these artifices and codes, their permanence or the cause of their disappearance. It also alayses their meaning and functioning.
Political cultures in 19th century Europe
Study of the discourses, practices and subjects of the different political cultures of nineteenth-century Europe understood as plural, evolving and constantly conflicting phenomenon. It includes liberal as well as illiberal, republican, democtratic, socialist and anarchist political cultures.

Management