From a Truncated Memoir to a Magisterial History: The Case of Lucas Alamán

Abstract

The article offers some reflections on the writing of biography, using as a case study the life of Lucas Alamán, the great nineteenth-century statesman and historian. It proposes that much light can be thrown on his life, historical works, and political position by an analysis of his unpublished autobiographical memoir written during the decade of 1830. This document reveals the preoccupation of its author with his family’s loss of social status and wealth, and the tendency of Alamán to understand the history of independent Mexico as one of failure.