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Joaquim Nabuco: Monarchism, Panamericanism and Nation-Building in the Brazilian Belle Epoque

2008; Duke University Press; Volume: 88; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1215/00182168-2007-103

1527-1900

Roderick J. Barman,

Cuban History and Society

The career of Joaquim Nabuco in the Brazil of the late Empire and early Republic much resembled a shooting star that briefly flames across the heavens, catching everyone’s eye, before it vanishes into the void. The “spoilt child” of the Empire in João Capistrano de Abreu’s phrase, Nabuco found inspiration and purpose in the campaign against slavery. With the achievement of abolition in 1888 and the fall of the Empire in 1889, he lost direction and became an outsider. His appointment as ambassador first to London (1899) and then to Washington, D.C. (1905) rescued him, but at a certain cost. “He is white, handsome, cultured,” Capistrano de Abreu observed, “he is precisely the right person to give the wrong impression of Brazil abroad.” Great as Nabuco’s success was as envoy, he was essentially a salesman, working to keep the British and the Americans happy and benevolent toward Brazil.Joaquim Nabuco’s life and thought fully merit a new in-depth study in English, and this Stephanie Dennison strives to provide. Her work has three parts: a preliminary consideration of Nabuco’s part in “nation-building,” an analysis of his monarchism, particularly during the first decade of the republic, and a discussion of his espousal of Pan-Americanism in general and the Monroe Doctrine in particular. The most developed and successful of the three is that focusing on Nabuco’s thought and writings as a monarchist during the troubled 1890s. His biography of his father, Um estadista do império, and his Balmaceda, a study of Chile’s ill-starred president, possess enduring value, but otherwise, as the author shows, Nabuco’s activities as a monarchist constitute little more than a dispiriting and fruitless tale.The author seems to go astray in her handling of Nabuco’s years in London and Washington. The Anglo-Brazilian arbitration proceedings to fix the Guyana border receive summary treatment with no attempt to assess Nabuco’s strengths and weaknesses as advocate of his country’s case. In respect to Nabuco’s years in Washington, Dennison overlooks a crucial element. The elevation of the Washington mission to embassy status and the switch of Nabuco from London reflected the decision by the Baron of Rio Branco, foreign minister from 1902 to 1912, to reorient Brazil’s foreign policy. Nabuco and Rio Branco’s acquaintance was long-standing, but, given Rio Branco’s position and his secretive, even devious personality, the relationship was not one between equals or one of entire trust. The author makes no attempt to assess Rio Branco, to understand his goals in respect to the United States, or to analyze his handling of Nabuco. The foreign minister, when he is mentioned, is presented as an encumbrance on Nabuco’s fervent advocacy of Pan-Americanism.It might be expected that this study, completed as a dissertation in 1996, would have been revised and strengthened prior to its publication ten years later. But the text suffers from all the problems that plague dissertations. The author’s command of her subject is uneven, her understanding of larger events superficial and even naive (particularly in respect to the Empire), and her use of the relevant sources incomplete. Typical of this last is the failure to employ the thorough and complementing biographies of the Baron of Rio Branco by Ivan Lins and Luís Viana Filho. Richard Graham’s article on Nabuco as a liberal is cited, but not Jeffrey Needell’s. The bibliography contains only 15 items (10 on Brazil and 5 on other subjects) published since 1996. In terms of content, the author does not analyze Nabuco’s personality to explain and make sense of his actions. As to structure, the opening section on nation building (in fact “national identity formation”) would be more effective if placed at the end and consolidated with the brief and overlapping concluding remarks. Lastly, the text contains unnecessary and irritating errors and misstatements.There is sufficient substance and intelligence in this work to make one regret that the author did not undertake a substantial revision of her decade-old dissertation before publishing it. Joaquim Nabuco’s life and writings are of value for understanding what the ruling circles of Brazil thought and believed during the Belle Epoque. On a personal note, the book took me back 40 years to my lunch, in their house in Laranjeiras, with three of Joaquim Nabuco’s children, who between them displayed his cultured mind, his social graces, and his savoir-vivre, all of which the author brings to life in her book.