History 3402 – Modern Latin America

Instructions for Essay #1

Domingo F. Sarmiento, Facundo: or Civilization and Barbarism (1845).

Write an essay explaining Sarmiento’s view of the early Argentine Republic. What are the challenges Sarmiento identifies for Argentina and what are his solutions for solving those problems? At the heart of this book is a partisan debate involving divergent views on the nature of state institutions and national culture. The central issue, as the title implies, contrasts “civilization” with “barbarism.” What does Sarmiento mean by those terms and how are these notions politically charged?

Think of this first essay as an opportunity to explain Sarmiento’s book. The next essay (the re-write) will ask you to analyze the meaning of Sarmiento’s argument. In that essay you will need to interpret his argument and its implications. But before we get to that point we want to make sure we understand exactly what he his saying. This process follows the two steps intellectual historians make in trying to understand the history of ideas.

The challenge of this first essay is to find a way to synthesize a lengthy argument and set of ideas. The best way to proceed is to find a specific topic that speaks directly to you, a subject matter that is relevant to your own intellectual interests and the book. For example, you may want to organize your essay around one of the following questions: Who is a citizen according to Sarmiento? What are the responsibilities of good government? How does Sarmiento create gendered images of his characters? How are characteristics of Argentine society racialized? What influence does/should Europe have on Argentina? How does he explain a conflict between nature (the rural environment) and modernity (the urban landscape of Buenos Aires)? You should NOT try to answer all of these questions, and you may certainly develop you own question or questions. You can assume that your reader is well informed about Argentina and about the text.

Your essay should have the following elements (separated by transitions and not subheadings):

1) An introductory paragraph in which you identify the central argument of your essay and how it relates to Sarmiento’s text.

2) Your argument/thesis should be in this paragraph (identify your thesis statement by making the font text bold).

3) The main body of your essay (several paragraphs) in which you analyze evidence from Sarmiento to support your argument.

4) A concluding paragraph in which you summarize your essay and suggest further questions and/or connections to issues beyond Sarmiento’s book.

Your papers are to be five pages, typed and double-spaced. Do not recapitulate the story line of the text—this is NOT a book review. You should avoid quoting at length from the book since you should try to grasp what Sarmiento is saying by putting the idea into your own words. When you do quote, simply cite the page number after the quotation; for example (Sarmiento, p. 25). Please feel free to discuss this assignment with Ms. Carmody, Mr. Gutierrez, or me. And remember to take advantage of the writing TAs available in the history department.

All papers are due in lecture on Thursday, February 10.

You will be rewriting this paper for a separate grade. The rewrite is due in lecture on March 10.