La Restauración Borbónica fue el periodo culmen de la configuración del relato liberal que se desarrolló durante el siglo XIX, no solo en organismos dependientes del Estado, como la Real Academia de la Historia, sino también en centros de sociabilidad como el Ateneo de Madrid. La construcción del Estado liberal hizo necesaria la fundamentación en el pasado para la propuesta de proyectos futuros para la nación. El presente artículo muestra el consenso entre distintos sectores ideológicos del Ateneo de Madrid en la concepción del pasado nacional y las diferencias en la valoración de ese pasado. Fruto de esas diferencias, los oradores elaboraron diferentes tradiciones que apoyaron su idea del ser de España y las reformas que propusieron.

No abstract

PurposeThis study provides a new look at the late 19th-century university issue in Spain. Loss of self-government among universities and the state’s centralization brought a conflict between science and religion to the fore in the process of the secularization of knowledge.Design/methodology/approachWe first delve into the anti-Darwinian framework associated with the scientific professionalization process, focusing on the case of the jurist Antonio Hernández Fajarnés (1851–1909). Secondly, we study the idea of the university that emerged from the Ateneo de Madrid, analyzing key speeches from the jurist Francisco Fernández de Henestrosa (1855–s.d.) given in 1887/88 and from the pharmacist José Rodríguez Carracido (1856–1928).FindingsThe study concludes that the Restoration Era in Spain was characterized by a generalized desire – shared by neo-Scholastics, conservatives and liberal rationalists – to improve the public university system. In this context, French influence was no doubt decisive; however, the Humboldtian university idea had already begun to have notable influence.Originality/valueThis article analyzes sources yet unknown to international research, such as the Ateneo de Madrid debates and Spanish university rectors’ inaugural speeches. It opens up a critical examination of the so-called displacement of educational principles in Spain toward a state-centered system of doctrinal moderantismo as opposed to the nation-centered system of the Cádiz liberalism. At the same time, it identifies key pockets of resistance relative to Spanish university transformation toward increased methodological secularization.

No abstract