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This book traces the impact of exile in the formation of independent republics in Chile and the Río de la Plata in the decades after independence. Exile was central to state and nation formation, playing a role in the emergence of territorial borders and Romantic notions of national difference, while creating a transnational political culture that spanned the new independent nations. Analyzing the mobility of a large cohort of largely elite political émigrés from Chile and the Río de la Plata across much of South America before 1862, Edward Blumenthal reinterprets the political thought of well-known figures in a transnational context of exile. As Blumenthal shows, exile was part of a reflexive process in which elites imagined the nation from abroad while gaining experience building the same state and civil society institutions they considered integral to their republican nation-building projects.
List of contents
1. Introduction: The Floating Province of Exile.- 2. Political Displacement and Independence: Commerce, Indigenous Peoples and Exile (1810-1839).- 3. Epistolary Exchange and the Exile Experience: Transnational Networks before the Nation.- 4. Political Exile, Labor Markets and Institution Building.- 5. The Practice and Politics of Exile: Nation-State Formation from Abroad.- 6. Exile Representations of Chilean Exceptionalism.- 7. Narratives of Exile, Narratives of Nationhood.- 8. Floating Provinces: Exile and the Formation of Independent Republics.
About the author
Edward Blumenthal is Assistant Professor of Latin American Studies at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3, France.
Summary
This book traces the impact of exile in the formation of independent republics in Chile and the Río de la Plata in the decades after independence. Exile was central to state and nation formation, playing a role in the emergence of territorial borders and Romantic notions of national difference, while creating a transnational political culture that spanned the new independent nations. Analyzing the mobility of a large cohort of largely elite political émigrés from Chile and the Río de la Plata across much of South America before 1862, Edward Blumenthal reinterprets the political thought of well-known figures in a transnational context of exile. As Blumenthal shows, exile was part of a reflexive process in which elites imagined the nation from abroad while gaining experience building the same state and civil society institutions they considered integral to their republican nation-building projects.
Additional text
“The book’s solid archival work, theoretical sophistication, and clear and nuanced narration of complex historical processes certainly make it valuable reading for anyone interested in nineteenth-century Latin American history.” (Jorge A. Nallim, Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 101 (1), 2021)
Report
"The book's solid archival work, theoretical sophistication, and clear and nuanced narration of complex historical processes certainly make it valuable reading for anyone interested in nineteenth-century Latin American history." (Jorge A. Nallim, Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 101 (1), 2021)
