The Conquest of History

A major contribution to our understanding of the relation between history and nationalism in Europe, the Americas, and Asia. It is a global history in the best sense, not a random comparison, but a connected history.

Schmidt-Nowara engagingly examines different ways Spanish intellectuals approached their country's colonial experience and the often antithetical arguments made by intellectuals in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. Well written and documented, this study is valuable for historians of ideas and the writing of history, as well as historians of Spain and Spanish America. Highly recommended.

Schmidt-Nowara's excellent and persuasively argued book pushes the limits of empire studies, particularly through the examination of nation-building outside of a nationalist context. Fundamentally, this is a study of the art of interpretation and a clear example of the ways that textual and discourse analysis are ideological arms in the battle for the control over recounting the past. This book is essential for anyone interested in empire studies, comparative colonial studies, or the literature and culture of the Spanish, Philippine, or Antillean nineteenth century.

A commendable piece of scholarship which argues something genuinely new by mixing an impressively broad canvas and a fascinating wealth of detail. An elegant, rich and convincing argument for a need to reappraise a neglected period and occasionally misunderstood processes.

Innovative, thought-provoking and already indispensable.

Succeeds in approaching history from both a metropolitan and a colonial perspective, not privileging either. The result is a rich analysis that demonstrates the centrality of the colonial experience to the development of national identities in both metropolis and colony.