Virtues and Vices in Modern Brazilian Historiography: a reading of Historians of Brazil, by Francisco Iglésias

In Historians of Brazil, Francisco Iglésias reviews some of the great names in Brazilian historiography as divided by him into three distinct moments: up to 1838, from 1838 to 1931, and from 1931 onwards. This article shall focus on the third of these moments, which has traditionally been considered the moment of the “modern Brazilian historiography”. More specifically, I would like to draw attention to Iglésias’ use of virtue and vice language to assess those historians and their works. Virtues and vices have long been used not only in moral evaluations but also in epistemic ones. Being recognized as a historian includes cultivating repertoires of virtues which are deemed to be necessary for actually being a historian. As Iglésias evaluates his predecessors, we will have a glimpse into how a particular way of being a historian – that of the university professor in the 1980s – clashes against previous models of scholarly selfhood