Book: Estranhos na Sua Terra - Ascensão e queda da elite mercantil cristã-nova (séculos XV-XVIII)
Author: Francisco Bethencourt
Publisher: Temas e Debates
Launch: 27 November, 17.30, National Library of Portugal
An absolutely unique study of the elite of New Christians - merchants, merchants, bankers and intellectuals -descendants of Jews forced to convert to Christianity in the Iberian Peninsula at the end of the Middle Ages between the 15th and 18th centuries.
"Among its multiple triumphs, this book avoids simplifying the nearly three-century history of the New Christian mercantile elite. Questions of identity, religious obedience, economic and social opportunities, political and institutional regulations, and cultural innovation provide the context for countless different case studies. Bethencourt's analysis of the disappearance of the New Christians as an ethnic elite at the end of the 18th century sheds new light on why and how this group emerged, as well as explaining how it came to play such a crucial role in international trade across continents and of centuries."
Mercedes García-Arenal, European Research Council
Critiques
"With candor, Bethencourt addresses a complex and divisive topic. Experts will be dazzled by his wise and comprehensive exposition. All readers will find the clues to an urgent scholarly debate about the early and varied manifestations of racialized thought."
Francesca Trivellato, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
"The prodigious research underlying this book represents, without a doubt, an extraordinary achievement. The familiarity that Bethencourtt showed throughout his career with the archives and operations of the Iberian inquisitors and the extensive knowledge of his Roman counterparts, combined with his recent work on racism, gave him a knowledge that is certainly unique both for its depth as well as its scope."
Simon Ditchfield, University of York
"There is probably no more important topic in Iberian history than that of the so-called New Christians. This bold new synthesis will revitalize academic and public debates about the very essence of what it means to be Spanish or Portuguese."
Stefania Pastore, Scuola Normal Superiore di Pisa
About the author:
Francisco Bethencourt holds the Charles Boxer Chair in History at King's College London. He is the author of History of the Inquisitions – Portugal, Spain and Italy (Círculo de Leitores, 1994) and Racisms – From the crusades to the 20th century (Themes and Debates, 2015) and coordinator of History of Portuguese Expansion (with Kirti Chaudhuri, 5 volumes, Círculo de Leitores, 1998-1999), Gendering the Portuguese Speaking World (2021) and Cosmopolitanism in the Portuguese-Speaking World (2018). He was director of the Gulbenkian Cultural Center in Paris (1999-2004) and the National Library of Portugal (1996-1998).
