The places of production of historical school knowledge in Brazil : historical compendiums and reconciliatory narratives in Paraná ( 1876-1905 )

O artigo trata da disciplina de História no Paraná entre 1876 e 1905. Toma como fonte investigativa compêndios adotados à época na instituição de ensino secundário, analisa o discurso histórico escolar presente nas obras e o relaciona à narrativa produzida sobre o sentido de nação. Embora a questão que liga o nascimento da disciplina com a construção do Estado nacional seja amplamente conhecida, a forma como ela foi tratada e as nuanças que ela assumiu em diferentes províncias do Império brasileiro ainda permanecem por se conhecer. A análise constata que os livros didáticos, objeto de estudo do trabalho, estabeleceram coexistência ou concordância entre as abordagens gerais – sejam universais ou civilistas – e as nacionais, indicando como a História nacional teve dificuldades em se firmar como disciplina autônoma até os anos iniciais da República brasileira. Palavras-chave: ensino de História; Paraná; compêndios. Abstract The article looks at the History of Paraná discipline between 1876 and 1905. The sources focused on are the compendiums used at the time in secondary schools. In addition, the historical discourse of schools present in the textbooks is analyzed and related to narratives produced about the meaning of nation. Although the issue that links the birth of the discipline with the construction of the national state is well known, the way it was dealt with in the different provinces of the Brazilian Empire still remains to be examined. The analysis shows that the textbooks, the object of the study, created either coexistence or correlation between general approaches – whether they were universal or civilista – and national ones, indicating how national history struggled to establish itself as an autonomous discipline until the early years of the Brazilian Republic.

Revista Brasileira de História, vol.33, n o 65 A history of history should not only be concerned with professional historical production, but with a whole set of phenomenon which constitute cultural history, or better, the historic mentality of an epoch.A study of school manuals of history is a privileged aspect, but these manuals practically only exist after the nineteenth century.
Le Goff, 1996   The task of investigating the constitution of historical school knowledge, we acknowledge, is as Le Goff observed in the epigraph, 1 very complex.A certain difficulty prevails in locating sources which can identify agents who participated in the trajectory of affirming their disciplinary field before the nineteenth century (Teaching Programs, Educational Policy, Institutions), actors involved in the affirmation of school knowledge (teachers, intellectuals, authors of text books) and, above all, the understanding of different sociocultural nuances in daily practices developed in the various teaching institutions existing and spread through the country since the middle of the nineteenth century.
Efforts of this type were made by researchers of the history of the discipline in the 1990s in Brazil.Their studies found an effective participation of compendiums and manuals -text books par excellence -in the formation of the disciplinary field in the middle of the nineteenth century, together with the Teaching Programs organized by the official Court school, the Imperial School of Pedro II.
As a result of these studies, it was found that the use of school compendiums as a source for dealing with the theme, consolidated in historiographic practice of Brazilian authors, allowed a greater analysis of the questions most specifically involved in the writing of school history and related aspects, such as, for example, knowing the means by which a determined social group established relations with the past.More specifically, they have become a source for the study developed about the discipline in the Province of Paraná, taking into account Michel de Certeau's 2 observations about the social places of the production of historical knowledge: All historiographic research is articulated as a place of socio-economic, political, and cultural production.This implies a means of preparation circumscribed by its own determination: a professional, an observation or teaching post, a category of literate people, etc.It is, thus, submitted to impositions, linked to privileg-es, enrooted in a particularity.It is in function of this place that the methods are established which delineate a topography of interests, around which are organized the documents and questions that are proposed.
By using as a source the compendiums adopted in secondary teaching institutions in Parana at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century, we can observe the relative autonomy to administer or resolve their local political problems which the agrarian elites obtained in relation to the search for the political centrality of the Brazilian Empire.
In the wake of Le Goff and Chartier's 3 indications, the compendiums are understood here as one of the cultural objects produced by social and political demands linked to historic knowledge; for this reason they are treated as witnesses of "the taste of some historic societies for their past."As producers of meaning, it is recognized that in their productions there is found "one of the principal expressions of historical reality."According to de Certeau (2006, p.73), they house "as a priority those who write in such a way that the work of history reinforces a socio-cultural tautology between its authors (the literate), its objects (books, manuscripts, etc.) and its public (educated)." When interrogated text books allow, according to Le Goff, the themes related to an epoch to be dealt with, since they are linked to the way a determined social group signifies the diffuse past to referred to in their narrative and textual organization.To deal with this theme, the text book is considered not as something abstract and which has meaning in itself, but rather is linked to a social institution which gives it meaning.As a result this production has the mark of its historicity and its conditions of socio-cultural possibilities.
As a representation of historic reality, the compendiums adopted to teach history in Paraná, in the period between 1876 and 1905, were perceived as political and pedagogical devices whose content expressed how part of the local elites, composed of mate farmers, large landowners, tropeiros, livestock ranchers and their children and children in law who were university graduates interested in the creation of and participation in the state, reacted to the national past. 4In other words, in the narratives that appear in text books used in the Parana institution -aimed at young people wishing to enter third level course at that time -there can be found some of the 'questions' faced by those local social groups from the middle of the nineteenth century onwards.
In this paper the compendiums are presented in a historiographic discussion whose aim is to clarify the place of the books adopted in the Parana educational institution in the Brazilian national scenario of the time.Their discourses -about the Brazilian nation and nationality -were perceived with greater emphasis in those adopted after 1876 and are treated in this analysis as contents of narratives which sought to attribute meaning to the political actions whose aim was the construct the 'nation' and its 'people' symbolically.It was observed that the state capital, integrated in the Brazilian social context at the end of the nineteenth century, sustained a secondary school course in which the existence of school history, as in the official college of the court, was due to its formative role in a nascent national identity alongside Brazilian identity.
Although the question which links the birth of the discipline to the construction of the national state is widely known, it is believed we still do not fully understand the manner it was confronted or the controversies that were produced between the agents involved by it in its process of affirmation in the different provinces of the Brazilian Empire.
For this reason this paper returns to the theme to dislocate it in time and space and has the aim of emphasizing the importance given to the regional institutions of government in the middle of a serious political and institutional crisis caused by the emancipation process and political affirmation aimed at, first possibly minimizing the risks of a possible rupture or territorial fragmentation, and later reconciling political divergences in a republican scenario.
In short, using this source the article investigates the discourse of school history produced in Paraná in the process of political change which became known as the transition from the Empire to the Republic.With this effort, it is expected to contribute to the expansion of studies in this area, in order to offer greater visibility to the different places of production of historical knowledge in Brazilian society.

The institutional construction of the school historical discourse: the narrative between the universal and the national
This place left blank or hidden by the analysis, which went beyond the relationship of an individual subject with its object, is an institution of knowledge... Erudite and 'ecclesiastical' 'political' institutions are reciprocally specialized.It does not involve an absence, but a particular place in a redistribution of social space.(Certeau,  2006, p.69)As occurred in other Brazilian provinces, secondary teaching in Paraná in the middle of the nineteenth century occurred in an institution called the Liceu and served as an instrument in the privileged distribution of education to the ruling class of the Brazilian empire.Studying in the Curitiba Liceu, thus, meant preparing to enter the ranks of the intellectual elite of the time.Generally reserved for the agrarian elites were the public and political positions, as well as the opportunity to exercise the functions of teaching in secondary courses and faculties, or simply to obtain the title of doctor, which in itself established the socio-cultural distinction of the period.Status, wealth and political influence were held in a small number of hands, not only in the capital of the Empire, Rio de Janeiro, but also the provinces at the end of the nineteenth century.
The Liceu de Curitiba, created in 1846 by Lei Paulista 33, symbolized an important cultural landmark in the Province which would be created shortly afterwards in 1853.As part of a set of measures taken by the local authorities aimed at organizing secondary education, it was the principal reference in the intellectual formation of the youth of that province until 1876, when it was replaced by the Instituto de Preparatórios.Here the presence of history could be observed from 1858, when students took exams to advance to a more senior class, marking the first movements of the institution after provincial autonomy.
According to the minute book Liceu's exams 5 from 1858 to 1861 the institution offered the following aulas avulsas (extra classes) 6 in history: Sacred History in the old testament, (1858); Sacred History in the new testament, and Universal and Ancient History (1859); Sacred History, new testament; Universal and Ancient History (1860); Geography and History (1861).
The emphasis on Sacred History in the 1850s can be understood by taking into account that in the Brazilian political and cultural context in the middle of the nineteenth century, the Catholic Church, due to the long-standing presence of Catholicism in the country -justifying its institutional and financial benefits -, interfered in the Church-State relationship and defend ecclesiastic prerogatives by means of its strong presence in the education of the lettered elites.
In Paraná the doctrine of the Catholic Church was maintained by the "influence of the priest in the private sphere, especially through confession and the power to enter the intimate secrets of the family." 7Added to this political and cultural aspect was the tradition of teaching the humanities in which historiography was submersed.In other words, the Christian mental universe encompassed the representation of the world for the veneration Christian dogma and evangelization, as Tétart observed, 8 supported by the analyses of Henri-Irénée Marrou: "the Bible, the history of the elect people, the teaching of scripture and historiography which follows it are inscribed in the development of humanity... history written by Christians and thus in itself a factor of the intelligibility of the world." It is in this sense that the presence of Universal and Ancient History can be explained amongst the 'topics' which exam candidates needed to know.Considered as a factor of the intelligibility of the 'world,' Christian history was inscribed in providentialist logic, limiting factual logic to the effects of divine will.Its inclination to a universalist history meant that to pass from one class to another in the Liceu Antiquity was contemplated from the aegis of the Christian perspective.
After the 1860s this universal and evangelizing history, however, had its space reduced.The 1861 prescription for the final classes -Geography and History -indicated the new political and pedagogical contours which the discipline would assume in relation to the changes occurring in Brazilian social life.
According to Miceli, 9 during the imperial period successive legal measures sought to staunch the presence of the Church in national political acts, and one of the strategies was to intervene in the recruitment for religious orders and for teaching positions.As he states: The prohibition of the admission of novices to religious orders (1855) was followed by a wide-ranging regime of public inspection of secular seminars (1863) and the prohibition of the entrance into the country of Brazilian novices ordained abroad (1870).For almost a century, no seminar was founded in the country.Apart from the strict control which it intended to exercise over the content of the disciplines and compendiums used in teacher training institutes, the government also contributed to remove teachers from Episcopal control by converting them into 'external professors' whose salaries were contained in the budget.
The governmental siege -answered by legal actions taken by the Brazilian clergy -indicated that the tendencies for strengthening the 'statization' policy carried out by the authorities implementing projects for 'national modern states.'As part of this trajectory, the history taught in the Parana education institution during the 1860s headed towards the laicization of its content.
The provincial Liceus were dependent on the list of subjects which they sought to offer to those youths aspiring to third level courses in the Empire.The manner in which the subjects in the Liceu was defined in function of the Policy of Divided Exams, which -according to the educational policy of the period -demanded that candidates to superior courses show knowledge about the listed subjects.Regulated and inspected by the government, the exams were the responsibility of the Ministry of the Empire, which appointed the examiners (Banca) and determined the list of subjects about which candidates had to prove their knowledge. 10his situation to which the Liceu was submitted shows, through its external face, how its social space was connected to other spaces -the Court, Rio de Janeiro -in a socio-political context and through the intermediation of its internal face, the establishment of a knowledge inseparable from a socio-cultural institution, Pedro II School.This was because, according the Additional Act of 1834, the offer of secondary courses in the provinces was divided into two parallel systems which lasted until the republican period.The regular system, divided into different classes, offered in the official court college, and eventually in the Provincial Liceus and a few private establishments, and the irregular systems, with aulas avulsas (individual classes), provided by the majority of provincial institutions, consisting of preparatory courses and divided exams to enter third level education.
As part of this political project, although the Parana authorities intended to make the Liceu a regular course for humanities -to take seven years -, they did not manage to implement their intention due to the lack of students registered in the few classes they managed to offer.Furthermore, Pedro II School, by centralizing political and pedagogical decisions, came to be the model secondary course offered to the Provinces, since the local authorities, thinking of qualifying their youths for political and bureaucratic positions in the Province, sought to resolve the problem by offering the classes demanded and the organization of a local institution such as an official college, making its teaching programs equivalent to those of Pedro II.
This policy was, thus, one of the agents which determined the constitution of the discipline in Paraná.In other words, it was the preparatory exams and the didactic and pedagogical indications of the Court college which, by orientating the actions of local authorities, contributed to the legitimation of school historic knowledge in the Brazilian provinces.
Between 1861 and 1876, the Liceu de Curitiba did not manage to define itself as a regular course.Submitted to the preparatory exam policy, those aspiring to third level courses soon abandoned the Province, going to the Court or to São Paulo.
The hopes for the prosperity of the Liceu did not correspond to the frequency noted ... The moving of some students to the Court or to São Paulo where they would prepare for advanced studies confirms my position ... The young men preferred to do their preparatory studies with the professors who would later judge them, thereby gaining the advantage of getting used to their teaching methods. 11ck of the students and provisions necessary for the regular functioning of the Liceu led to the ending of the course in the way it was presented, reaffirming the centralization of secondary teaching with the creation of the Instituto de Preparatórios in 1876. 12n the middle of the intensification of this policy which characterized the secondary course at the time, the cadeira (course) 13 of History was created in 1876 in the state capital, which in accordance with the regulations which established it 14 would involve giving classes in Universal History, independent of Geography.
Within the institution, the situation however was different.Based on the entries in the book containing the names of the professors and lecturers, 15 the institutional place for the production of knowledge in this period, History appears united with Geography under the following name: Chair of Universal History and Geography and Cosmography.In other words, it did not comply with the stipulations of the Regulations.In this redistribution of knowledge, João Pereira Lagos Junior held the chair in 1876.Moreover, after 1877, under the responsibility of Previsto Gonçalves Columbia, the chair began to also offer the History of Brazil.In this composition, the classes, under the responsibility of a professor, provided the content necessary for the exams 16 and strengthened school history knowledge in the Province in Geography and the History of Brazil, annexed to Universal History.
This specificity possibly indicates that the legitimation of History as an autonomous discipline followed its own paths in each province of the Empire, with intensities and particularities in each social and institutional space.In relation to this, while the places marked the conditions of production of the discipline, directly linked to the institution, the political connections which involved these provincial institutions with the center assured and maintained the discipline in the wake of what was done in the official college of the Court.
In this relationship -between the center and the province -, what needs to be understood is the role of Pedro II School in the redistribution of knowledge inseparable from a socio-political institution.The example of interest here is its characteristic as the model college for all secondary school institutions.Aimed at young people born into well-off families, the college prepared them for advanced level courses, as well as graduating them in letters.By bringing together the children of the imperial elite, the official college was a factor of political unity among the young aspirants to public positions in the state.In this aspect, "the political and intellectual fields had fluid frontiers, in the same way that the boundaries were fluid and imprecise" 17 between the between the disciplines taught about the past.
Based on this connection, in Paraná the composition of the contents of the History course were defined in two compendiums which, having been adopted in the official college, were also indicated for use in the Parana institution in 1870 18  Circumscribed by the social place of production -the Institute of Preparatory Studies -, the Parana educated classes did not produce at the time compendiums and manuals with the discourse of history expected in the official college.Furthermore, since Pedro II School was the institution which had the most illustrious teachers in the Empire, accepting its production did not create much opposition, since in some way common contexts and problematics were being experienced: the affirmation of the independent country.
Produced in France, the compendium Histoire Universelle, published by Librairie Hachette (1 st edition in 1855), draws on histories written previously by Duruy about Rome, the Ancien Regime, the modern period and the History of France. 19This work was considered innovative at the time because it dealt with the events of a political history which sought the initial landmarks of a people in their 'evolution' and their forms of social organization, representing the thought of the author about its pedagogical purposes for the teaching of history. 20uruy, directly interested in the debate about school history in the proposals for laicizing public education in France, wrote his works in a period in which the project for creating lay public schools was being confronted by religious authorities in France. 21Precisely for this reason when translated to Brazilian circumstances, the European repertoire was redefined.
The compendium of the French author was translated and adapted in 1865 by the cleric Francisco Bernardino de Souza.According to Bittencourt, the translator was responsible for some important alterations in the work.For example, the initial chapters of the book were redefined.In these the translator, "seeking to emphasize the sacred origin of man," modified the logic of the compendium.As Bittencourt observes: 22 In the original ... Duruy sought to present a general configuration of the continents and the forms of communication established between the different peoples.In Chapter II ... he presented the biblical traditions about the first men to explain that the three human races were present in the Catholic religious version ... The Brazilian translator inverted the presentation of the chapters.He started with Primitive Times -Biblical Times -foundation of empires and, at the end, included in a summarized form the limits of the world known by the ancients.The inversion of themes ... indicated a reinforcement of the Christian version of Furthermore, Bittencourt also finds omissions in some sub-items and added content.In the translation a chapter was included about Portugal at the end of the History of the Middle Ages and another one about the Portuguese kingdom during the period of Modern History, from the reign of d.João II to d. Pedro V.The interventions made by the cleric -then a teacher in Pedro II School -are significant for pointing out the connection created between school historiographic production and the politico-cultural scenario of the country in which the education generations existed in the 1870s.
In the educational field, the concern with the paths which Brazilian society could take in light of the socio-political events experienced in the 1870 23 led part of the intellectual elites to rethink the unity of the nation.After the consolidation of political unity, the problems of the centralization of power, since they affected in distinct ways the various provinces, indicated an initial attempt to sketch out the foundations of a national community with its own identity.
In Curitiba some of the intellectuals who chose the educational fieldbeing a teacher -as the privileged space for their political actions were increasingly attracted by the debates about the ideas of the 'modern nation,' such as the 'patria,' 'democracy,' 'liberty,' 'civilization,' etc. Concepts which were present in the political discourses of the time.
This scenario became strategic for the creation of a profile for the history to be taught in the Province.The problematic of education and the teaching of history was, thus, a terrain of affirmation of this knowledge and its content, a space of struggle, whose dual dimension -'scientific' and political -were inseparable from the question of national identity and, from then on, regional as well.
The construction of the narrative can be understood to explain, in the translation of the French work, the emergence of the Brazilian nation.The intellectual elites of Parana who studied in the secondary school institutions adhered at this time to the European models of the nation to think about the 'new times' which would come to the country.
In the universal history of the French author, history is divided into stages: Ancient, the Middle Ages, and the History of Modern Times.
The civilizing trajectory is narrated by initially commencing with Rome.The conflicts of Antiquity are seen as an important conductor of political and social organization.The 'Foundation of the Roman Republic' (item 11 of the work) is told in relation to the important Emperors (Cesar, Augustus), exalted for their administration of public power.In the Middle Ages what was emphasized were the "principal states founded by the barbarians in the Roman Empire in the fifth and sixth centuries" (item 2).In this period the study of France began in its "breakdown into large fiefs" (item 7) and its establishment as one of the "great modern nations" (item 10). 24These excerpts from the work gave the tone of narrative to Duruy and marked the justification of its translation and its use in secondary school institutions in Brazil during the Empire.In other words, it takes advantage of the preparation of an image which consolidated Brazil as a symbol of unity, an integral part of civilized western culture as narrated by Duruy.
The image of great nations studied in their process of formation on the pages of Universal History is reaffirmed by Joaquim Manoel de Macedo in his didactic work Lições de História do Brasil -para os alunos do Colégio Pedro II, in his explanation of the Brazilian case.In this work, Macedo prepares a model of national history which is connected to the universal trajectory of the formation of European national states.Written in 1861 and adopted in the Court college that decade, he states the following 25 in the narration of the facts which marked, in the author's view, the construction of the country as an independent nation: More than three centuries ago Brazil was discovered, it is close to have a century ago that the land of the Holy Cross regenerated itself and wrote its name on the list of the nations of the world and its various sources of wealth, and its numerous natural products which are still not recognized and exploited, and even less taken advantage of, except in part, which little by little are aggrandizing and which barely let all the prestigious thesauruses being calculated, which God sowed in it with His prodigious and welcome hand.
Written at a time when the educational purposes were defined by the intentions of producing a history adapted to the political principals of the Empire, the content of the Lições tended to define Brazil form its genealogical perspective.Its origins were in Europe -in Portugal -, and its development, linked to the colonizing action of Europe.
The content of the Lições were not simply aimed at the educational plane, as Macedo wrote, but at the imperial society in which they were produced.This was because in his lessons the author informed the past as a collectivity which was part of his effort for the identity construction of Brazilian nationality.Macedo understood that a compendium was necessary which would teach young people the moments considered the most important in Patriotic History, which indicates the importance of this work in the intent to consolidate the project of national unity through school education.
Although at this time Pedro II School already had various other possibilities of compendiums of Universal History and the History of Brazil, Macedo's Lições were only adopted in Paraná in 1882, according to the Act of the Literary Council of the Institute and the Escola Normal. 26In spite of the importance of the official college in the decisions of public education of the time, what has to be considered in this case, in addition to the legal determinations, was the decisive role of local powers in the choices made, taking into account the structural problems (lack of resources, of staff, of students and teachers) and the political questions debated in the province.For this reasons, it can be understood that the indication of Macedo is representative of the dilemmas which national history assumed in the Province in relation to the course of Universal History, which was established in 1876.
In its process of affirmation, the discipline, although its content was organized through the mediation of these two compendiums, emphasized the narrative of Universal History.The defining marks of the geo-political formation of European spaces and the material and scientific development of humanity, indicated by Duruy, served as the fulcrum for thinking about the paths for the development of Brazilian nationality at a moment when the ruling class asked, amongst other questions: "What is being a nation?";"How to transform a population, a set of people grouped in a territorial space, into members of a nation?";"How to operate the transformation of a population into a people with a set of values and common traditions, in other words, with a national identity?" The compendiums adopted in Paraná show how a part of the urban elite concerned with intellectual life thought about the relationship of Brazilian society with the colonial past.Although they did not represent the thought of the totality of these groups, these intellectuals had an active participation in the reflexive process of thinking about national identity.
At the end of the nineteenth century, Curitiba was experiencing economic and social changes interpreted by part of the local political elites as necessary for the progress and modernization of the Province.The educated, marked by the philosophical tendencies of the century, showed ambiguities in their political positions, as was the exemplary case of Rocha Pombo.A deputy for the Province in 1886, in his first statement in the Assembly he justified for the youth of Paraná -inflamed by abolitionist and republican ideals -the motives which led him, a republican in 1879 and founder of one of the first republican periodicals in Paraná (A Voz do Povo), to be elected for the Conservative Party, defender of the imperial and escravocrata (slave-holding) order: When they censure me, they forget that to take the position of the staunch defender of a new idea it is necessary above all to strengthen the credit in relation to opinion, it is necessary first to win public trust and to be certain that the people wish to hear us...Your Excellency knows how much it has cost ... to take revenge on the public spirit of this set of reforms, or social improvements so necessary for the progress and civilization of our patria. 27cha Pombo, from what his adherence to the current political status quo indicates, argued that in this way he managed to implement a reform policy that he wanted, is an example of the ambiguity that was not just political, but also of ideals about how to advance towards something new.It is thus possible that in the Parana educational institution these ambiguities of ideas existed, although they were flattened in the faculty meetings of this institute -the decision making center of political and pedagogical questions -which brought together all the teachers and decided which compendiums were to be used.
Given the need to amortize a recent past covered by many conflicts -as was the case of the events which marked Brazilian independence -, the choice was made for teaching a school history which could unify the narrative about the historic past of the nation.The unification of the narrative took place by leaving patriotic history as an appendix of Universal History.In other words, in the middle of the process of creating a history which could explain the origin of Brazil as a nation, the politico-cultural experience of the imperial elites is defined in the school program for the teaching of history, based on two interpretative foundations: the national socio-political experience and the European civilizing experience.
At this moment, Brazil, explained in terms of a European genealogy starting in the modern age, was in the collective representation of Brazilians linked to the universal movement of the formation of European states and at the same time to French historiography, responsible for the laicization of the proposal for school teaching.
The participatory nature of the compendiums in the representation of the national past remained after the proclamation of the Republic, when, maintaining the same position as the producers of meaning, they incorporated in their narratives in the initial decades, themes which express the social changes of the period.

The reconciling narrative: the National between the Universal and the Civilizing
We are a people of fireworks, in a common sense of the expression: which means we are a very backward people.We have no industry, no art, no science.In politics we suffer from complete paralysis.We have only the policy of fireworks.Let us leave the old parties to one side.... We will work for the Republic. 28e change in the regime experienced by the country at the end of the nineteenth century did not in general bring significant changes in secondary education activities in Paraná, not even a change in the name of the institution represented transformations in the principal objectives delegated to this level of teaching.According to the 1891 Regulations, 29 Instituto Paranaense changed its name to Gymnasio Parananese, with the Escola Normal being maintained in an annex.It also complied with the 1876 Law 456. 30However, the discipline of History underwent significant changes during the 1890s.
Stipulated in the 1892 regulations, 31 the courses were separated into Universal History (6 th year) and the History of Brazil (7 th year).This ordering in which History was separated from Geography and the History of Brazil was disconnected from Universal History, indicated the political and pedagogical contours that had been drafted in the country with the proclamation of the Republic.
At the end of the nineteenth century the writing of a new history of Brazil was indispensable, taking into account the events experienced with the crisis of the Empire.This meant that republicans had to dedicate themselves to writing a new national history.In a general form, the greater density of Brazilian social life was allied to a more complex intellectual environment, provoking a search not just for new forms of thinking about the country, but also for how to organize its teaching.However, the course of Universal History did not escape the demands of Brazilian society at that time for political and cultural change.The idea of the History of Civilizations and a program of General History appeared in the institutional scenario of the state as a response to the complexity of the question.
The political scenario in Curitiba in the initial years of the Republic was marked by discursive debates present in the constant confrontation of proposals and tense relations between the (urban and rural) political elites.For part of this elite, the Republic was synonymous with the 'lights of civilization' which would lead to progress through public education.The discourse of 'modernity' was present in the press and in educational documents, though at the same time, it caused in some political representatives a fear of drastic changes in the existing social norms of existence.However the word of the time was 'modernization,' allied with the growing urbanization, the autonomy of the provinces, liberty, industrialization and scientific progress.Although part of this urban elite -who attacked the conservative politics of the period, dominated by traditional families from Curitiba -understood that Paraná was far behind centers such as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, and that the transformations reported from Europe and the United States were motivations to consider Paraná as being capable of aligning itself with the ongoing modifications.
Republican intellectuals linked to the press and the symbolist movement -such as Dario Vellozo, Silveira Neto, Julio Perneta, Antonio Braga, Domingos Nascimento, Emiliano Perneta, Emílio de Menezes, Rocha Pombo, Romário Martins, Vicente Machado and Victor do Amaral, amongst others -believed in a government of interest to the people and defended it.Their writings and political actions summoned people to fight and to participate in republican clubs and associations.Their ideas were registered in the 1887

Manifesto of the Federal Republican Congress:
The Brazilian Federative Republic, founded on the basis of the reciprocal autonomy and independence of provinces and circumscriptions, which in the future would found the United States of Brazil, supported by the eternal principals of liberty and justice, defended: universal suffrage, the freedom of the written word, of conscience, of worship, the inviolability of the domicile and postal correspondence, freedom of teaching, of association, of property, the use of the jury for all sorts of crimes, the abolition of privileges, titles of nobility or decorations, the intervention of the people in all public business. 32 the long manifesto -of which only an excerpt is reproduced here -it is interesting to perceive an approximation with the organizational and state principles of the United States of America.It follows that part of the elites of Parana had a position favorable towards federalism and the US model of government.However, in 1889, two years after the publication of the Manifesto, the newspaper A República changed its tone in relation to state autonomy: these ferments will ruin the relations between the states and center, creating the separatist idea and giving it the force of public salvation...The states would think about freeing themselves from tyranny.Even with the Monarchy, it would have been enough to vote for the separation of the provinces, giving elasticity and autonomy to local forces, so that this idea would be completely forgotten.Nations are like a great family, whose members create their own economy, living in their houses, looking after their lives and interests, but united by blood, by friendship, by tradition, by common interest.Union for the general interest and autonomy for the private interest, the foundations of public happiness.All the provinces share in the glory of this country. 33 was emphasized, at least among the Parana republicans, that national unity was fundamental to maintain the 'grandeur of the patria' and its 'people.'Drawing on Comtean positivism, present at the time among the educated, it was stated that what was fundamental was "the exaltation of the altruistic and affective side of the human being [which] should promote the civic cult of the family, the patria and humanity... Morally sustained by the Family and propelled by the Patria, in the service of Humanity." 34onvinced that the path of unity was the best solution for the new Brazilian scenario, part of these intellectuals would seek reconciliatory policies, "not an exclusive reconciliation with any of the former parties because this would widen the division around the same dissolving principles which characterized the old party groups," stated Vicente Machado in the newspaper A República, concluding that one further "reconciliation which solely shelter the serious desire to reorganize the state and the Patria."This political position would also mark the discussion about what history could teach us and what needed to be produced in pedagogical terms for teaching.
In the European context of the end of the nineteenth century, Universal History was an object of discussion among the authors who proposed to write a History of Civilizations in a 'scientific' manner.For the critics, the development of the sciences through the specialization of knowledge and their 'civilizing' principles brought for the office of the historian the idea that History should, in contradistinction to political knowledge and centered on important characters, be particularly concerned with the evolution of the arts and sciences of 'peoples.' In the preface to the Compêndio da History da Civilisação, by the French historian Charles Seignobos, 35 there can be found the definition of the History of Civilization as the only thing capable of showing how people "left the savage state, and how little by little they were liberated from misery and oppression, and through which efforts they conquered they liberty and welfare."He then continues: The narration of wars, of conquests, of political revolutions, which constituted the principal part of history, could seem sufficient at a time when only the adventures of kings, generals and great people were of interest.Now anyone who has the least education desires to understand the society in which they live and to know how the customs which surround them are formed.We are not content with the narrations of the events social and political history, we want to also know the events of the moral, religious and material events of humanity.Alongside the great events of celebrated characters, we want to have a perfect idea of the lives of the millions of men we do not read about and who in their time formed the mass of nations and were our predecessors ... while the history of political events is the favorite study of men of state, the history of civilization is what is the true history of the people.
Proceeding with the criticism, the author proposes a history to be understood as of 'a scientific and less philosophic type.'These reflections about the 'scientific' nature of the progress of humanity gave rise to the controversies about the axis of Universal History versus History of Civilizations, as can be observed in the reflections of Seignobos and of Valentin, 36 which reaffirm the importance of an idea of Universal History: The daily necessity which is felt for a Universal History is a movement against the specialization whose purpose of preciseness is intimately related with industrialism and the specialized research of the natural sciences.The new inclination to the essential, the general, is fundamentally valid, and also gives a new impulse to Universal History.
The alterations processed in the writing of history in the European scenario at the end of the nineteenth century can be perceived in the disciplinary composition of education in Paraná at the start of the Republic.In the 1893 Decree 37 the cadeira (course) of General History appears.These new stipulations marked to a great extent the redefinition of the trajectory assumed by the discipline in the institution, whose emphasis on the study of civilizations is clear in the official document: In history, there shall be mentioned, without descending into minute details, the political, scientific, literary and artistic events of each memorable epoch; there shall be taught the causes which determine the progress or the establishment of civilization in the great historical periods, assessing the men who contributed to the beneficial or perniciousness revolutions of humanity, especially those of the Americas and above all those of Brazil, grouping round them the characteristic facts of the phases in which the public spirit dominated, and the principal scope of the program and teaching, in patriotic history in particular, shall be to teach educational history vivifying the national feeling.
After accepting the changes in the historiographic perspective at the end of the 1890s, there was a new organization of the discipline program.Here General History consists of the following: Ancient and Medieval History (4 th year); Modern and Contemporary History (with content dealing with the American countries) (5 th year); History of Brazil (6 th year). 38These would only be implemented in 1898.That year the teachers in the Ginásio Paranaense suggested that Annibal Mascarenhas' compendium Lições de História Geral replace that of Duruy, and in 1899, that História do Brasil by Mattoso Maia replace Macedo's Lições. 39ne of the explanations for the replacement of Duruy by Mascarenhas was, in addition to the historiographic changes processed at the time, an indication that his compendium was aimed at the preparatory exams of that time.In the editor's preface 40 it is stated that the Lições de História Geral had been Organized in accordance with the current program approved by the Inspector General of Public Education for the general exams... it is the only one which can serve the examinees of history, since in it can be found clear dissertations about all the points of the program for the exams, dissertations written in accordance with the spirit which dictated that that program, and which tend to give a new direction to historical studies.
In relation to the content which made up the lessons, the editors stated: Describing the Ancient Civilizations, the author, to conform with the program and to offer a book of real use for students of history, puts into evidence the influence of habitat and the reason for the appearance of various historic facts.
From prehistory to the first social types, to the science of history, from which the cosmological, physical and psychological data are deduced, all are discussed with total proficiency and didactic guidance by Mr. Annibal Mascarenhas who straightforwardly explains these various subjects in a way that facilitates their understanding by all intelligences.(ibidem) Dealing with the History of Civilizations in the discursive molds of Seignobos, Mascarenhas seeks to demonstrate the 'causes of human progress,' which in his reading was divided into great historic periods.The History of Civilizations, gaining space to the detriment of the History of Brazil 41 in the initial years of the republican government, established itself in school contents through the intermediation of this compendium in Paraná, although there existed in the national scenario authors who defended an autonomous historic knowledge of the nation -as in the case of Capistrano de Abreu.
After the biennial 1898-1899, only in 1905 was there found in the Parana institution a new record of the adoption of compendiums. 42Given the task of demarcating the direction of teaching in the Ginásio, space was opened for the History of Civilization in accordance with what had occurred in the official college.That year a book by Dario Persiano de Castro Velozzo was indicated.He was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1869, moved to Curitiba and participating actively in regional questions until his death in 1937.His didactic work Lições de História was written for the course of General History, which was once again called Universal History.Meanwhile the History of Brazil continued to divide space with French in the course French and the History of Brazil -, being taught in the pages of the compendium of Mattoso Maia.
Maia's book, in turn, although it is Patriotic History, does not differ in perspective from a History of Civilizations.In the narrative, national history is submitted to the perspective of western civilizations, as can be observed in this excerpt: 43 In relation to the period of civilization in which savages were found in Brazil at the time of the arrival of the Portuguese, the current version is that it was in the period called Polished Stone, knowing the use of fire, and of ceramic arts, but without knowing how to cast metals...Among the pre-historic monuments of the civilization of the indigenous Brazilians, we can cite the celebrated artificial hill Ilha do Pacoval, in Marajó Island...The representation of the national past present in the work of Mattoso Maia indicates the new way in which part of the local elites related with historical knowledge and with the reality in which they lived, faced with the challenge of forging an identity for the nation.
At the dawn of the Republic, the state capital had become urbanized.The population had increased with the intensification of immigration and technological transformations in the production of erva-mate, creating a new economic situation.Curitiba was excited about the idea of progress understood as a synonym of modernity and, above all, with the comprehension that the future would reserve more welfare and joy for the inhabitants if the advances of scientific knowledge and modern technologies were incorporated by those in power.Certainly part of the intellectual elite of Parana ended the century understanding that the social changes experienced -essentially the end of slavery -placed it under the 'dynamics of modernization' of European societies.It was a moment in which it could be compared with European elites and their social contexts.
In the position assumed in relation to the present, the local elites interpreted the events of the past in relation to the new perspectives brought about by the change of the political regime.Intellectuals with a republican tendency pointed to the 'deficiencies' of the previous political regime (the ills of the 'backwardness' of centuries to which the country had been condemned for various factors, especially due to the inheritance of slavery) and the ever close approximation of the civilized version not just arising out of the works that they would seek in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and outside the country, but also the narrative produced by a History of Civilizations.The lack of importance of the History of Brazil as an autonomous discipline in Paraná in the initial period of its configuration as a school discipline involved questions which permeated not only the debates of this period about Universal History versus History of Civilizations, but also the perception of national history as a constructor of identities within this question.
However, the changes did not just involve this.Part of the intellectual elite of Paraná, educated in an intense environment of social restlessness caused by abolitionism, by the rising immigration which brought socialist and anarchist ideas, and the increasing force of anti-clericalism and freemasonry in the task of preparing a new interpretation of the past, linked to the content of the History of Brazil and the Americas.In 1898 for the course of Universal History, Vellozo selected compendiums which illustrated the perspectives involving teaching at this time.
The proposal presented in the 1893 Decree was accepted by the teachers in the Ginásio and led to Vellozo's adopting two books for his classes in 1899: Revoluções Brasileiras by Luiz Gonzaga Duque and Curso de História dos Estados Americanos by João Manoel Pereira da Silva. 44The head of the course in the Ginásio, his efforts were translated into producing images and actions representative of the anxieties of the groups which composed Paraná society at that time, and although it cannot be stated that all of the educated elites were involved, they were come together in favor of the new times and the desire to understand the weight of the changes being processed.
Given the challenge of considering paths for the definition of local republic policies, Vellozo sought to trace out a discourse based on the teaching of the past to explain the 'progress' of Brazilian society, incorporating possibilities opened by the writing of history in the transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century, with the purpose of helping the 'apprentices of power' to understand the ideas of nation born with the change of political regime and which circulated among the educated classes of Paraná.
Adopting the Curso de História dos Estados Americanos, written in 1876 in João Manoel Pereira da Silva (1818-1897), Vellozo confirmed, by proposing arguments that could think and represent the continent and within it prepare its national discourse, the opinion that the History of Brazil should be seen from the general perspective.According to Silva, history was 'the history of the progress of civilizations,' and that it was only possible to known a more civilized nation in comparison with other nations.The development of a nation, in turn, was the responsibility of 'its children,' who, knowing the past, could project the future of progress: 45 Societies inherit principles, ideas, material elements, facts and opinions; they have the obligation to increase the estate and treasure they received from the past, as well as improvements transmitted to descendants.Do you not censure and condemn the father of the family who ruins the fortune inherited from his forefathers instead of expanding it for his children?Do you not criticize and stigmatize someone who instead of making the traditions of his genealogy even more polished, transmits to his descendants his shameful name?
What is needed for societies is to know and assess their state and situation, comparing them with the past and with other peoples, in order, having noted the differences, to make all efforts that can lead to greater improvements, and to prepare a more bountiful future for their successors.
Luiz Gonzaga Duque (1863-1911), in turn, is clarifying to the extent that he presents new possibilities for the teaching of the History of Brazil at the time.The reading he made of the past 46 was approved by Vellozo, as well as his perception of the pedagogical aspect of the discipline.
Historical knowledge of the origins of the Republic is an educational duty of a free people, emboldening the patriotic soul of the youth and developing the belief in politics in the soul of citizens.
The history of Brazil, which until today had been written for use in school and the reading of our patriotic youth, does not comply with this desideratum because it was restricted to the narrow conventional molds of monarchical teaching; it is lacking and deficient in the reference to successive and bloody wars which led the new South American nation to have government by the people and for the people.It is precisely this, the part of its history which the people, represented in its youth, need to know, because there are the examples of the civism of their forefathers who, without sparing any effort, fought for the liberty and the civilization that we have managed to achieve.
The idea of the 'Brazilian revolution' which appears in the work of Gonzaga Duque, to which Vellozo was sensitive, was connected to the changes through which national historiography was passing at the beginning of the twentieth century.In secondary education, Brazilian history, in addition to receiving new contents, such as the abolition of slavery and the so-called 'revolts' of the Imperial period (Mascates, Emboabas and others), expanded the space of struggles and social movements in the content to be studied.Struggles for independence and for the affirmation of the republican regime were seen in Duque's compendium from a perspective of a History of the American Colonies.
Vellozo did not stop there.He put himself to work and wrote between 1899 and 1900 a compendium 47 especially for the course he had assumed.Through the intermediation of his book, he related the development of 'modern nations' with the lessons that could be obtained from Greece and Rome -in relation to feelings of patriotic civility -and with the ideals of the French and American Revolutions -in relation to the principles of liberty of peoples.In his opinion, this trajectory needed to be studied to understand the actual 'civilizational' movement of the Brazilian people in relation to the 'History of the Americas' and the 'History of Humanity.' In the chronology developed by Vellozo, it was in Classical Antiquity that there could be found the most finished example of a political life organized in the molds of a 'more advanced civilization.'In his understanding, in Antiquity there could be found the principle of union as the strength of the Empire, developed sciences, the regime of democratic government and full public life.His efforts to describe these facts was to project in Paraná youth ways of acting in local politics, indicating the need to overcome what his cocitizen had mentioned some time previously: "personal politics [was finished with] to make space for real politics, large and generous, in order to [raise] our land to the height of its glorious destinies," 48 in other words, to move towards a 'society of rights.'Vellozo did not just borrow from Antiquity, but also from the final part of feudalism, to affirm to the new generations that the republican spirit could have been materialized in national society in the form of an incipient democracy.In his work with the 'fall of feudalism' a new era started -the 'era of social rights.' The emphasis given to the 'legitimation of rights' by the author allows other related concepts to be emphasized, such as people and liberty.Vellozo presented these concepts as connecting the emergence of new nations and explained from where there had emerged the historical motivations for the appearance of 'progress': "This intense reaction against the abuses of the ancien regime, against class prejudice, against sovereignty; in favor of the people who had suffered and who had equal right to life, to liberty, to civilization: was called the French Revolution" (Vellozo, 1948, p.110).
In the narration of the events of 1789 there can be found a critique of Monarchy and favoritism for the Republic.In the passage dealing with the actions of Napoleon I in 1804, his opinion is clear: The republic was extinct; however the ideas of the Encyclopedists and the emancipating conquests of the Revolution were perpetuated, becoming an inalienable dowry to Humanity.The great reforms were not annulled, the rights of man entered into the constitutions of modern countries.It was the beginning of the new social order, the basis of civilization for the nineteenth century.(Vellozo,  1948, p.112-113)The lessons ended with information about 'liberation movements' in the American continent.His intention was to show the 'dawn of modern times' and as a result the theme of the 'Maritime Discoveries' opened the period with Lesson XXVII.In this a summary of some facts about the History of Portugal is given, reaching the discovery of the Americas and Brazil.
In relation to the Americas, in Lesson XXXIV the civilizations considered to be the most advanced on the continent were mentioned.Among these, the Incas were said to be the most evolved, due to the science and art they had developed.Finalizing his lessons with the question of 'Independence,' the US case is treated with profound admiration due to the task it carried out in the 'evolution' of modern societies.
Linked together to teach the past, nations are presented as the result of an evolution of the political actions of individuals and the patriotic merits of the people.In his belief, it was vital for the youth of Paraná -enlightened men and the citizens of tomorrow -to perceive the universal characteristic of 'all civilized societies.'For Vellozo, this was the formative challenge of the discipline: a secular Universal History incorporating a History of Civilizations with the purpose of making the political ideal cohesive among the citizens of the Patria and creating a national identity.
Given the reality he experienced as a member of the local elite, Vellozo went beyond the formal aspects of the disciplinary contents of school history which were stipulated in law and proceeded in pedagogical practice to a junction of proposals.In his narrative he unites the indications of the History of Civilizations, such as in Seignobos, with the tradition of Secular Universal History -in the molds of Duruy -, emphasizing political actions and characters in the formation of nations.
Vellozo introduced America in the teaching of History in Paraná, as an America that was part of the project of national identity centered on Europe.In other words, in his work in the Ginásio he presented an American identity that was part of a political history in which the Americas -including Brazilwere an appendix to the History of Civilizations.A perspective of an education which could contribute to the definition of a project of nationality coherent with the republican ideals experienced at that time.In the context of textual genres, editorial formats and daily political practices, the text book marked, in this way, knowledge of the past which symbolically presented the unity of the nation in light of the contradictions of the society of 'progress' and above all which redefined the meaning of national identity in the scenario of republican life which was beginning.

Final considerations
In the wake of the socio-political changes experienced in nineteenth century Brazil, and more specifically in Paraná, the affirmation of the disciplinary field of school history in the state involved the following episodes: the presence of history in preparatory exams; its affirmation as a school discipline autonomous from Geography in Pedro II School; the growth of the need for patriotic historical knowledge, culminating in the creation of the course of the History of Brazil in 1849 in the official court college; the gradual configuration of a professional body linked to this content; as well as the changes carried out by contemporary historiography at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century.
Each of these events can be seen as a possibility for specific studies.In this paper, however, the more general aspects were considered which school compendiums allow to be observed in their narratives.In their mediation it was possible to recognize the relational networks -experimented and interpreted by the social actors at the time -created in the space of Paraná at that time and understanding how the social reality during that long period was constructed, thought, and explained, attributing meaning to the national past.
It was found that in each moment studied, the history taught in Paraná was organized according to hierarchies which traced the frontiers between universal and national knowledge.Moreover, it emphasized which historic objects were legitimated for teaching and which were considered non-legitimate, pointing to the divergences existing between the representatives of the intellectual elite.
In this context it was found that the universal dimension of historical knowledge gained meaning to explain the national scenario, inscribing the narrative of the past as part of the challenges and questions which the local agrarian elites debated at the end of the nineteenth century in the Brazilian Empire.With the arrival of the twentieth century, the socio-political changes experienced by Brazilian society, especially those linked to the imperial tradition -slavery and colonization -, produced new challenges for the task for creating a 'glorious' national past.At this moment, motivated by new sociopolitical contours, the school history taught in Ginásio Paranaense was based on the perspective of the History of Civilizations, in which the concept of 'people' gained prominence and came to explain national history through the quest to 'civilize themselves.'From this perspective it is possible to understand how in the set of events which marked Paraná society in the transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century, the compendiums adopted were connected to the sociohistorical and cultural context of the national and international space during that period, conferring national history with an image of a 'civilized nation' which did not tarnish its elites.It involved a national history born in the civilizing project of the white, European and Christian man, in which the Brazilian elites projected themselves.This was one of the motives which help us understand why the History of Brazil had difficulties in affirming itself as a discipline autonomous from Universal History and later from the History of Civilizations.
The History of Civilizations which replaced Universal History, based on the study of biblical events and which, to the extent that it was laicized, privileged the formation of states in a linear temporality which began in Antiquity -considered the genesis of civilization and strong and centralized states.This path reinforced the perspective of integrating national history in the civilizing process.The effort to assure continuity in the succession of facts made the history of Brazil start with the history of European countries, in particular Portugal, and at the end of the nineteenth century incorporate the Americas into the civilizing chronology.
However, this linearity was not processed in the field of teaching in a harmonious manner.In the middle of this configuration of the disciplinary field, disputes were perceived, in particular in relation to the space of the History of Brazil as an autonomous discipline in the Court college, precisely at the beginning of the Republic.These disputes were not, however, observed in Paraná in the period covered by the research.In that space, the teaching of History was characterized by the task of unifying the narrative about the national historic past, reconciling aspects of Universal History and the History of Civilizations.