Simón Bolívar: Liberation and Disappointment

Abstract

In this very good biography, historian David Bushnell has produced an immensely readable and balanced account of the famous Liberator, Simón Bolívar. The book is part of the growing Library of World Biography series, which is intended to provide students and the educated general reader with authoritative, engaging introductions to the life and work of major figures in world history. As Peter Stearns states in his preface, the editorial mission of this series is “to show how individuals helped shape the society around them . . . [and] capture the individuality and drama that mark the human character” (p. vii). This book succeeds on both counts. Bushnell’s version of Bolívar’s life renders a complicated and controversial era accessible and comprehensible. He strikes an appropriate balance between chronological narrative and an explication of the debates that have arisen over various events and actions in the Liberator’s life. His book follows the series’ norm by omitting footnotes and a full bibliography; however, a four-page bibliographic essay outlines the major relevant book-length studies available in English.Bushnell characterizes Bolívar’s life as one of liberation and disappointment. The dualism of the description is apt. He notes in his introduction that “Bolívar today inspires well-nigh universal admiration” and has been claimed as the progenitor of Latin American political movements of nearly every stripe “precisely [because] of the contradictory aspects of his life and image” (p. ix). In other words, Bolívar offers something for everyone. As a man who exulted in the glories of liberation before plummeting to the depths of disappointment at the failure of his dream for a free and united Spanish America, Bolívar embodied the promise and perils of independence. Bushnell makes generous use of Bolívar’s own writings and those of his contemporaries to give the reader a sense of immediacy and to draw out the human facets of a man whose life has become iconic.For students and general readers, the author’s evenhandedness will be an asset. Bushnell skillfully points out the various controversies that swirl around major events in Bolívar’s life. These include his 1812 capitulation at Puerto Cabello and subsequent betrayal of Francisco de Miranda into Spanish hands, the nature of his much-debated War to the Death, his meeting with José de San Martín in Guayaquil in 1822, his ambiguous attitude toward pardos and non-European races, and representative democracy. Readers will become aware that there are varying interpretations of Bolívar’s motivations and divergent interpretations about the meaning of his actions. In no instance does this sort of historiographical commentary detract from the narrative flow, which is a tremendous accomplishment in itself and makes the book enormously useful. Professional historians and the advanced reader, however, will soon chafe at Bushnell’s refusal to bring his own opinions to the forefront; the text is littered with phrases like “it is impossible to say” (what happened in the Miranda incident after the disaster at Cabello, p. 36) or “it would be pointless to try to decide who committed the first atrocity” (in the War to the Death, p. 51).Bushnell manages to achieve an effective balance between the diverse military, political, cultural, intellectual, and personal aspects of Bolívar’s life and work. He suggests that non–Latin American historians have exaggerated certain aspects of the wars for independence, most notably the contribution of foreign mercenaries such as the Irish and English Legions. Perhaps understandably in a short biography of this nature, Bushnell omits any substantive discussion of Bolívar’s complicated relationship with his former tutor and erstwhile friend, Andrés Bello, who felt so betrayed by the Liberator’s failure to use his talents that he eventually chose to settle in Chile. This inability or unwillingness to recruit men of talent like Bello to his state-building cause might provide some insight into Bolívar’s personality and eventual disappointments.Bushnell brings his discussion of Bolívar’s legacy right up to the present day, including a brief conclusion that covers the various ways historians and politicians have attempted to harness their own fortunes to the Liberator’s memory. In the end, he writes that Bolívar was “better at analyzing the ills of Latin America than he was at devising remedies” (p. 203). In Bushnell’s estimation, the Liberator stood out among a generation of remarkable patriots for “his commitment to Spanish America in its entirety” (p. 205). This book is lively, engaging, and sophisticated and may well replace Gerhard Masur’s biography as the best and most concise account of Bolívar’s life available to English-speaking readers.