文章基本信息

标题：David Lewis Tengwell, The Portuguese Revolution (1640-1668). A European War of Freedom and Independence. Lewiston, The Edwin Mellen Press, 2010, 482 pp. ISBN13: 978-0-7734-3614-5.
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作者：Rafael Valladares
期刊名称：E-Journal of Portuguese History
电子版ISSN：1645-6432
出版年度：2011
卷号：9
期号：2
出版社：The University of Porto, Brown University
摘要：Prudent readers know they should be wary of the first impression that may be created by a book’s title. First because the author of a work is not always responsible for choosing the title—the policy of publishing houses normally manages to impose itself—and second, and most importantly, because even when authors are free to choose their own title, there is always some doubt as to whether they have successfully managed, with just a few magic words, to convey the dense and complex message that a book contains. I believe that the work by David L. Tengwall, Professor and Chair of History and Political Science at Anne Arundel Community College in Arnold (Maryland, United States), fits into the second hypothesis. On innumerable occasions from the beginning to the end of the book, Tengwall repeatedly uses the enticing words that are found in the title: “revolution” (and “revolutionary”), “freedom” and “independence”—to which we might also add the word “nationalism”. So, there is no room for any confusion, since the reader is clearly informed about the thesis that the author defends: that the separation of the crown of Portugal from the Spanish Monarchy, achieved between 1640 and 1668, amounted to a revolution that can be considered equivalent to others that took place in seventeenth-century Europe, insofar as that process represented a radical change, not only because of the recovery of independence on the part of the Portuguese, but also because of the internal transformation that Portugal experienced with the new dynasty of the House of Bragança. The triumph of this revolution, which until today had remained hidden from the world of historiography, consisted of installing in Portugal a “limited monarchy” (143) of a participatory and constitutional nature: “Portugal emerged,” Tengwall concludes, “as a truly modern European state” (391).