Resumen de Spanish Colonialism and the Production of Knowledge. A Review of Christopher Schmidt-Nowara's The Conquest of History: Spanish Colonialism and National Histories in the Nineteenth Century (Pittsburgh: U of Pittsburgh P, 2007)

Alejandra Bronfman

• Beginning with the premise that colonialism and the production of knowledge are intimately related, Christopher Schmidt-Nowara’s interests in this book lie in the versions of national and imperial histories elaborated by nineteenth-century Spanish and Antillean intellectuals. The production of knowledge and memory is a rich field that has recently begun to receive attention from historians of Iberian empires and Latin American and Caribbean nations. This welcome addition to that field aspires to be truly Atlantic in its perspective, not only by paying attention to history-writing on both sides of the ocean, but also by demonstrating the ways in which Spanish and Antillean intellectuals constituted a real field of dialogue and inquiry. Ambitiously, Schmidt-Nowara also includes the Philippines in his purview, underscoring the expansive nature of Spanish imperialism.