A História como ofício: a constituição de um campo disciplinar

Abstract

Marieta de Moraes Ferreira's book, recently launched by Fundação Getulio Vargas' publishing house, is at the spearhead of current research in the history of historiography. I do not say this as a favor, nor as a protocol of the review genre. Any shrewd observer of the area would note the growth of research prioritizing 'great men' or 'great works,' especially in relation to the more recent times and to Brazil. Since the studies of Manoel Salgado Guimarães, the nineteenth century has gained analyses focusing on the nexus between institutions, their sociability, and the concepts of history in them and arising out of them (Guimarães, 2011). Twentieth century authors are reserved a type of rapture, as if they were 'floating intellectuals'-especially in regard to essayists before the turn that gave rise to university institutions which from the 1930s onwards would concentrate teaching and gradually research in history. 1 We slowly have gone beyond this phase, and A História como ofício: a constituição de um campo disciplinar appears to both collaborate in this direction and be a sign of it. The book is divided into three parts, namely: "The History of History in Rio de Janeiro: from UDF to UFRJ"; "Profiles and trajectories"; and "Interviews with students and professors from UDF, FNFI and IFCS". The first part contains a detailed reconstitution of the vicissitudes involved in the establishment of the first course in history in Rio de Janeiro, using a diversified set of sources and a considerable amount of information: the social and intellectual profile of professors, the curriculum, programs from the course, federal decrees, and programmatic texts.