24 - Peru

Summary

Peruvian historiography for the period 1880–1930 has undergone a vast expansion and renovation during the past three decades. This transformation began with the universal interest generated by the so-called Peruvian military revolution of 1968, which inaugurated a period of intense reform lasting until 1976. Moreover, a decade of relative economic growth and prosperity during the 1960s, combined with postwar demographic trends, produced a rapid expansion of the country’s educational system, particularly at the university level. As a result a rising middle class, anxious to rediscover its identity and redefine the national experience, created a strong, new demand for knowledge about Peru’s history. The result was an ever-increasing production of new and often revisionist works by a new generation of Peruvian scholars who have transformed the traditional landscape of Peruvian historiography. This new production, however, has slowed in recent years due to the economic decline and political instability that Peru has experienced since the mid 1970s. These difficult conditions make it increasingly problematic that a new generation of Peruvianists will emerge to carry on the historiographical innovations of the past quarter of a century.

Any study of the period 1880–1930 must begin with the dozen or more works of Jorge Basadre, the dean of modern Peruvian historians. His seventeen-volume Historia de la República del Perú, 6th ed. (Lima, 1968–9) stands as a towering monument in the field, with five volumes devoted to the period 1880–1930. He also published the most complete, annotated bibliography for the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: Introductión a las bases documentales para la historia de la República del Perú con algunas reflexiones, 2 vols. (Lima, 1971).