Enlightenment America and the Hierarchy of Races: Disputes Over the Writing of History in the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1768-1788)

Author:

Sebastiani, Silvia

Format:

Journal Article

Year:

2012

Journal Title:

Annales. Histoire, sciences sociales

Volume:

67

Issue:

2

Language:

English

Abstract:

In the 1780s, the dispute about the New World entered a new phase. Creole voices redesigned the spatial, political, and economic matrix of modern thought about race within an Atlantic framework. By focusing on the changing eighteenth-century entry on “America,” this article considers the successful commercial enterprise of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, which was conceived in Scotland. It examines the intellectual shift in reference from the Scottish Enlightenment of William Robertson to the antiquarian history advocated by Francisco Xavier Clavijero, a Mexican Jesuit, exiled in the Papal States. The new cartography of knowledge endorsed by the Encyclopaedia led to a racial classification associating Scriptures and providential history.

Who (Jesuits):

Clavigero (Clavijero), Francesco Saverio, 1731–1787

What (Subjects):

Controversies -- Race

Literature -- Jesuit Depictions

Historiography -- History

Where (Locations):

Europe -- UK -- Scotland

When (Centuries):

18th century

Worldcat URL:

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/7290725984

Publisher URL:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/annales-histoire-sciences-sociales-english-edition/article/enlightenment-america-and-the-hierarchy-of-races-disputes-over-the-writing-of-history-in-the-encyclopaedia-britannica17681788/D8A1F506529D4B2C7D82CE00F52A0598

Page Range:

217-251

ISSN:

0395-2649

DOI:

10.1017/S2398568200000650

Comment:

See the French version of this article: https://jesuitonlinebibliography.bc.edu/catalog/24749