Revolts and proclamation as historical frames: writing of history and visions of the Republic by the members of the IHGB

Abstract

The views and voices of the members of the Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro (IHGB) in relation to the Republic of 1889 were intensely marked by a repertoire that had already been mobilized by the writing of history. While some members experienced the return of the anarchy particular to the Regency period, others conceived the 15th of November by the same frame that had been used to comprehend the Independence, and referred to it as a proclamation. To address how these ways of understanding the past were active in the comprehension of politics, this article examines some historical memoirs written by the same literates who still experienced the 15th of November in the Second Reign. The article concludes that the involvement of the Historical Institute with the government was more than only a connection between scholars and counselors of the Empire with the Republic: it was also the permanence of a repertoire of ways of seeing the past and, through the past, also of ways of seeing the present.