The New History
If Marxism as an analytical lens died a good while ago and Postmodernism never seriously took off the ground, what is left? A new historiography called "the history of science and technology". Although that of "a new history" will sound suspect to many--and with good reason given that in the majority of cases the "new" is merely "more of the same", the topic which has received the least attention in the history of Hispanic regions is that dealing with the mechanism of modernity. Although "modernity" per se has received focus (and misfocus) in great detail, particularly economic analysis, what has served as its base has not received rigorous attention. Ironically, this is particularly the case of the 'highest' centers of Latin, those with the highest number of publications typically in United States. (European centers are more advanced in this respect.) They include centers for Latin-American studies in the United Sates: the University of California (Berkeley), the University of Florida (Gainesville), the University of Texas (Austin), and the lamentable Tulane University, which was so gravely affected by Hurricane Katrina. These centers have been blinded by the 'latest' tendencies, without a critical evaluation of what needed to be explored (which is a great deal). Certainly professors as Stuart Schwart of Yale University have begun analyzing the topic, particularly his Braudellian emphasis on the hurricane basin known as the Caribbean. Nonetheless, it is surprising how little attention traditional historians have awarded the topic, in either departments of "history" as well as "history of science". A survey realized by the History of Science Society (HSS) showed that the number of studies realized in Spanish-speaking world was a minimal fraction of the total, less than 5%. Certainly we can point out that Marxism, Postmodernism, and even Feminism are not necessarily exclusive of what is here being suggested; there exist many such studies in the "history of science". The topic here suggested (history of hispanic science and technology) is highly important because it helps clarify the genuine obstacles to economic development in the region, as well as its well-being. It naturally yields itself to a much more serious and just analysis concerning the "why not" of Latin America, which have typically tended towards a 'foucaultian' emphasis on the exclusive and hollow emphasis on "power". As Karl Mannheim wrote almost a century ago, "Those, however, who never transcend the immediate course of historical events, as well as those who so completely lose themselves in abstract generalities that they never find the way back to practical life, will never be able to follow the changing meaning of the historical process.”