Projecting the Nation

the nationalist optician of Bernardino Bormann and the military writing of the War of Paraguay

Abstract

This article aims at the work History of the War of Paraguay, by José Bernardino Bormann, a military man, born in the city of Porto Alegre in the Province of Rio Grande do Sul in 1844, and who participated in this central conflict in the history of Brazil during the century, acting, for example, in the battles of the siege of Uruguaiana, and the attack on Curupaiti. Our intent here is to identify the characteristics of the author’s writing, with an emphasis on the nationalist character of his historiography, as well as a writing of history that, in his time, was seen by many historians as an instrument to exalt the achievements of Brazil and to constitu-te its history.