The work of the historian Alberto Harambour received the honorable mention of the awards for the best publications in Social Sciences of the year 2020, from the largest association for Latin American studies in the world.
Andrea Navarro, IDEAL Center. “Border sovereignties. States and capital in the colonization of Patagonia (Argentina and Chile, 1830-1922)” is the name of the work distinguished with the honorable mention of the awards for the best books in Social Sciences of the year 2020 of the Southern Cone Studies Section belonging to the Latin American Studies Association (LASA,) the world’s largest professional association for Latin American studies.
The text, written by the historian of the Center for Dynamic Research of Marine Ecosystems of Altas Latitudes (IDEAL) and academic from the Austral University of Chile (UACh), Alberto Harambour, considers an exhaustive review of business, state and judicial documents and travel accounts in archives from Argentina, Chile, the United States and the United Kingdom.
The 300-page book, published in July 2019 by Ediciones UACh, is the result of a decade of research and begins by analyzing representations about Patagonia, European fantasies about cannibal giants and a vast cursed territory, analyzing the processes of occupation, conquest and colonization.
The work describes the successive colonizing failures that helped to maintain the idea of a wild and empty space in southern Patagonia. In turn, he argues that the great transformation would have started with the irruption of livestock pulsed by British capitals and the world expansion of the empire, through steam navigation and from the Falklands. The book ranges from the expeditions of Fitz Roy and Darwin to the state and private violence that put an end to the “rebel Patagonia,” between 1919 and 1922.
LASA has about 12,000 members belonging to various disciplines such as literature, philosophy, history and political science, among others.
The work describes the successive colonizing failures that helped to maintain the idea of a wild and empty space in southern Patagonia.
“The book seeks to contribute to reinterpreting or recognizing the history of Patagonia, the colonization in America and the expansion of the states. It is a regional history, of the construction of states, transnational,” says Harambour, who is also the author of” A trip to the colonies. Memoirs and diaries of a Scottish sheepdog in Falklands, Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego (1878-1898). Translation: M. Azara and A. Harambour. Santiago: Barros Arana-DIBAM Research Center.”
“Border sovereignties. States and capital in the colonization of Patagonia (Argentina and Chile, 1830-1922)” has been praised in several reviews and the first edition is sold out. It is possible to purchase it in e-book format, and a second print would be available in bookstores by the end of 2020.
Next challenges
Harambour is currently working on two new books. The first is tentatively titled “World finals. Yaganes, selknams and tehuelches in the trips of Charles Furlong” and will be published soon by Pehuén Editores. The second book is an edition that brings together more than a dozen articles about the colonization of different American borders, during the Age of Empire (1870-1920s.)