Honorable Lives

Lawyers, Family, and Politics in Colombia, 1780–1850

Victor M. Uribe-Uran, Victor Uribe-Uran

• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9780822977322
• Topic: Storia
• Subtopic: Storia mondiale

The first work in English to discuss the social and political history of lawyers in a Latin American country, Honorable Lives presents a portrait of lawyers in late colonial and early modern Colombia. Uribe-Uran focuses on the social origins, education, and careers of those qualified to practice law before the highest colonial courts—Audiencias—and the republican courts after the 1820s. In the course of his study, Uribe-Uran answers many questions about this elite group of professionals. What were the social origins and families of lawyers? Their relation to the state? Their participation in political movements and parties, revolutions, civil wars, and other political processes? Their ideas, education, and training? By exploring the lives of lawyers, Uribe-Uran is also able to present a general history of Latin America while examining the key social and political changes and continuities from 1780 to 1850—particularly the elites and state managers. Honorable Lives features three genealogical charts detailing bureaucratic networks established by families of lawyers in different historical periods. The text also contains an abundant series of statistical tables and charts, and concise biographical information on approximately 150 Latin American lawyers. This book will appeal to Latin Americanists, students of law, and anyone interested in the lives and histories of lawyers.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Tables and Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1. State Service and Status-Honor
• 2. The Lawyers and the Late Colonial State
• 3. Family Networks and Colonial Stability
• 4. Independence: A "Revolution from Above"
• 5. Kill All the Lawyers!
• 6. Changing Generations and Regions in the 1820s
• 7. Politics and the "Public Sphere of Civil Society," 1820s-1830s
• 8. Legal Education: The Making of Bureaucrats and Citizens
• 9. The War of the Supremos
• 10. The "Liberal Revolution": A Friendly Affair
• Conclusion
• Chronological Outline
• Appendix 1. Background and Trajectory of Some of New Granada's Colonial Lawyers
• Appendix 2. Lawyers Who Died Shortly Before or After Independence
• Appendix 3. "Transitional" Generation: Lawyers Trained during 1805-1820
• Appendix 4. Background and Trajectory of the "Aristocratic" Lawyers of the 1820s and 1830s
• Appendix 5. Background and Trajectory of the "Provincial" Lawyers of the 1820s and Beyond
• Appendix 6. Key Provincial Lawyers and Law Students Active in Opposition Politics during the Late 1830s, by Region
• Abbreviations Used in Note Citations
• Notes
• Glossary
• Index