Guilherme Celestino is a historian of political ideas with a PhD in Portuguese and Brazilian studies from King’s College London and also a former visiting fellow at Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade de Lisboa.

• Acknowledgements; Foreword; José da Silva Lisboa and the Brazilian Independence Revisited: Introduction and Argument; Chapter One  Brazil and Silva Lisboa in Context; Chapter Two  Constitutionalism before the Fico 1821–1822; Chapter Three  Reclamação Do Brasil: Paving the Way for Independence without Supporting It ; Chapter Four  The Pamphlets Which Failed to Keep History under Control; Conclusion: Ideas that Shaped Brazilian History; Bibliography; Index

By inquiring into José da Silva Lisboa’s role in the process of Independence, Guilherme Celestino seeks to re-evaluate the conventional position he has occupied for such a long time in Brazilian historiography – a conservative or a reactionary – in order to give a new interpretation of the role played by this man. And so, a convinced monarchist emerges, defender of the House of Braganza, who was guided by the Portuguese Enlightenment preaching the renewal of institutions through gradual reform. A book destined to be a reference for studies on the Independence period and on Silva Lisboa’s own thinking’ — Lucia Bastos P. Neves, Professor of Modern History at Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil