Book Reviews

Republics of Knowledge: Nations of the Future in Latin America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2020. 304p. Paper, $39.95 (ISBN 9780691176758).

In Republics of Knowledge: Nations of the Future in Latin America, Nicola Miller, Professor of Latin American history at the University College London, offers a two-part book addressing the history of knowledge in Spanish America from independence in 1810 to 1910, when governments understood the importance of access to public knowledge as a key feature of modern nations. From a multipractice perspective, Miller addresses the contribution to knowledge by different people, institutions, societal manifestations, public debates, policy-making, and collective identities. The author relies on three case studies involving Chile, Argentina, and Peru and the transnational connections that are made during the nineteenth century with other countries in Spanish America. Miller’s academic narrative style, set to Arno, and Old-style serif typeface in the classic Venetian tradition, is supported by citations and tables, taking the reader on a 10-chapter journey back in history covering topics including national and public libraries, literacy, infrastructure, land and territory, and the purpose of education.

Miller starts by describing the role of national libraries, inserted in these nations in the independence-era, as centers of “universal enlightenment” and trusted by people of different political views. National libraries were indeed a site for producing and preserving public policies, societal views on knowledge, and the ideals of nationhood. Some of these national libraries started as public libraries, but, as Miller notes, even when they had some common ground, their priorities differed. The Buenos Aires library was seen as a “school of knowledge,” the Chilean library had a repository emphasis, and in Peru the focus was “popular political rights.” In these cases, the public library engaged public education, while the national library would serve as a repository for national culture.

Chapter 2 addresses knowledge learned or produced at public institutions, such as universities, immersed in the study of nature, the ancient classical world, and rhetoric. Although there were grievances affecting the modern educational system related to outdated curricula, Roman Catholic dogma conflicting with scientific knowledge, and the import of nonrelevant theories (which led to the University Reform Movement of 1918), social mobility through education was possible during the mid-nineteenth century. Chapter 3 captures the importance of printing as a tool for making knowledge widely available. Interestingly, Miller notes that press freedom “was deemed a basic republic right” used by governments to promote the ideals of public education. While there was a production of periodicals, books were brought from Europe at the expense of local writers. These institutions also faced issues related to liberty, morality, censorship, and economic factors that meant almost all production needs such as printing presses, typeface, ink, and paper were imported. Miller also highlights that iconographic evidence, the culture of attending court sessions, and literacy taught in the army to people from “pueblos originarios” documents the circulation of information before mass literacy is established. 

Chapter 4 explores drawing as a propelling force for cultural expression and its place in educational reforms meant to mark a country as modern in independent Spanish America. Drawing was essential in cartography, depiction of landscapes, flora, fauna, natural history and science, architectural town planning, military strategies, artisanal industry, and the representation of national heroes and war scenes. There was an urge to create drawing schools and, even when resources were lacking, drawing classes were taught in public and private venues. Chapter 5 defines knowledge by considering the verb “ilustrar” (to enlighten, to instruct, to explain, to illustrate) and the Spanish term “illustración” and “pensamiento” to ultimately explain what it meant in the task to enlighten people.

Part II begins by examining language in Spanish America as it relates to Spanish, a specific country’s dialect, and the Indigenous language of the “pueblos originarios.” This chapter highlights the debate surrounding language from the need to expand the correct use of the Spanish language and maintain its relevance to the value connected to Indigenous languages. Chapter 7 contemplates the value of land in building Spanish American nations. Miller explains that nationhood was connected to the environment, the land and its resources, and a historical commitment to a “society based on political freedom and social justice.” Chapter 8 refers to classical political economics, in which Latin American economists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century raised concerns about applying economic theories that worked in Europe to Latin American nations. For Latin American economists, especially worrisome were the export market over dependence, foreign investors’ repatriation of profits, and losing control of banking, natural resources, and infrastructure. 

The last two chapters of the book address infrastructure and the social purpose of primary education. Miller underlines a relevant discourse on the value of local expert knowledge versus foreign decision making that controlled the building and modernization of railways and ports, while highlighting the decreased trust in knowledge coming from Europe and the increase in “homegrown expertise.” Local engineers sought more control over foreign companies, citing that these foreign engineers were not acquainted with the terrain. Finally, the purpose of education was a matter of debate, especially during the wars of independence, where there was much reference to popular education and the need for literacy by people of all social ranks. Latin American governments understood the importance of elementary education to the broader community. However, issues arose as education was used as a vehicle of indoctrination, with nations installing curricula based on state-approved commitments to morality and patriotism, and in countries like Peru, for example, elementary education being seen as urban-base when more than half of the population was rural, and with education policies ignoring the ways of life of Indigenous peoples.

Republics of Knowledge: Nations of the Future in Latin America offers an intellectual sojourn to nineteenth-century Spanish America formulating inquiries as to who has access to knowledge, what type of knowledge is considered more valuable, the legitimacy of knowledge born or shaped by a nation, and the importance of knowledge to construct national identity. To conclude, this book is concerned mainly with knowledge within an intellectual, political, and transnational perspective from a primarily creole and white men perspective. In addition, at least one of the chapters addresses the role of national and public libraries. Let us hope Miller will grant us future publications detailing her findings on indigenous knowledge and its historical contribution to Spanish America.—Kathia Ibacache, University of Colorado Boulder