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Abstract

This essay dives into the debate and surrounding context of a special issue of the Hispanic American Historical Review. It was on the new cultural history—its usefulness, its methods, and its relation to truth. I argue that the new cultural historians eventually vanquished their critics and internalized their methods and epistemology within historians of Latin America at large. Stemming from earlier texts, the special issue of the HAHR is the most revealing collection of texts on the philosophical foundations of the new cultural history. It showcases scholarly activity from supporters and detractors of the novel movement with considerable focus on Mexican history. The different authors have varying views on the nature of power, language, knowledge, postmodernity, and meaning, creating vastly separate conclusions on the nature of quality historical work. Taking these contributors into account, I believe that cultural history efforts were and still are crucial to the historical discipline, and therefore worthy of study.

First Page

60

Last Page

80

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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