The Portuguese Academy of History during the Estado Novo (1937-1974)

from a political recreation to a laborious existence as an independent institution

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to show how the New State’s dictatorial power institutionalized a type of historiographic discourse close to its ideology, through the regeneration of the former Academy focused on History, which had disappeared during the Modern Era. The creation of the Portuguese Academy of History, at a time of stabilization and strengthening of the authoritarian regime’s foundations, reveals the proximity between the scientific community and the New State’s conservative matrix. Taking ownership of this distant institutional history, the Academy’s nucleus founders enthusiastically followed the line drawn by the Government. However, the conquest by the Academicians of a relative autonomy generated difficulties, which multiplied over the decades, due to a dashed interest from the very same Government that had created it, causing disarray in the Academy.