David A. Brading

David Anthony Brading FRHistS, FBA (26 August 1936 – 20 April 2024) was a British historian and Professor Emeritus of Mexican History at the University of Cambridge, where was an Emeritus Fellow of Clare Hall and an Honorary Fellow of Pembroke College. His work has been recognized with multiple awards, including the Bolton Prize in 1972, the Order of the Aztec Eagle, and the Medalla 1808—both of which were awarded by the Mexican government —and the Medal of Congress from the Peruvian government in 2011.

He is regarded as one of the foremost historians of Latin America in the United Kingdom, and was the most widely cited British Latin Americanist.

Early life and education David Brading was born in London, England, and educated at St Ignatius' College and Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he read history and obtained a BA (Hons) double first-class honours in 1960. He was an Exhibitioner and Foundation Scholar at the University of Cambridge where he attended the lectures of David Knowles, Geoffrey Elton and Michael Postan. In 1961, he was awarded a Henry Fellowship to Yale University. But it was later that year, whilst in Mexico, that Brading's fascination with the country began: I have now found my field of study: sixteenth-century Spain and Latin America...The more I think of it, the more Latin America seems attractive. Sixteenth–century Spain, looking back to the Reconquista and forward to the Counter Reformation and the decadence. The nature of its Catholicism, its mysticism, the history of its expansion, the Jesuits, its art, architecture and poetry. Latin America with its archaeology and anthropology, the nature of its liberalism and its revolutions. and enrolled for a PhD degree at University College London, under the supervision of John Lynch.

Deciding to investigate silver mining in New Spain, Brading spent 15 months engaged in archival research, starting in the Archive of the Indies, the Biblioteca Nacional de España and the Archivo Histórico Nacional before continuing in Mexico in the National Library of Mexico, the General Archive of the Nation and the archive of Guanajuato. which was examined by Charles Boxer and John Parry.

Returning to the United States as an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Brading delivered three sets of lectures dealing with Mexico, Peru and Argentina, before moving to Yale University as associate professor in 1971.

Brading's first book, Miners and Merchants in Bourbon Mexico 1765–1810, was published in 1971. It dealt with the general history of the silver industry in Mexico with a comprehensive study of Guanajuato and its mines, population and leading families. A review in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science called it a "landmark of dissertation research and organization" while Fernand Braudel, who is considered one of the greatest of the modern historians, found it a "fascinating book". It won the Bolton Prize in 1972. In 1999, Brading was made Professor in Latin American History at the University of Cambridge.

Brading died on 19 April 2024, aged 87.

Works In 1992, Brading's book The First America: The Spanish Monarchy, Creole Patriots, and the Liberal State, 1492–1867 was published. Its central thesis was that Spaniards born in the New World (creoles) had an American cultural identity, a creole consciousness, distinct from those born and raised in Spain (peninsulares). A review in the journal History declared it to be a book of major importance on the topic, as did a review in the Journal of Latin American Studies. The Mexican literary magazine Letras Libres said that "it occupies a place of honor in the library of neophytes and scholars".

Festschrift

In 2007, Brading was honoured by a Festschrift, with essays by former students and colleagues, as a "celebration of his outstanding contribution to the field of Mexican history". The result was Mexican Soundings: Essays in Honour of David A. Brading. Its genesis lay in a September 1999 three-day conference, "Visions and Revisions in Mexican History", held at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

Henry Fellow, Yale University, 1960–1961 Herbert Eugene Bolton Prize, 1972 Visiting Fellow, University of Tokyo, Japan, 1985 Directeur d'Etudes at I'Ecole de Hautes Etudes en Science Sociales, 1989 Professor Honorario (Honoris Causa), University of Lima, Peru, 1993 Fellow of Academia Scientiarum et Artium Europaea, 1993 Leverhulme Research Fellow in Mexico,1993 Visiting Scholar, Centro de Estudios de Historia de Mexico, Condumex,1993 Member of European Academy of Sciences and Arts Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, 1995 Fellow of the British Academy 1995 Julio Cortázar Visiting Professor, University of Guadalajara, 1996 Miembro Honorario, Instituto Riva-Agüero, Escuela de Altos Estudios, Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru, 1997 Miembro Fundador, La Sociedad Mexicana de Bibliofilos, A.C. 1997 Miembro Correspondiente, La Academia Nacional de la Historia, Lima, Perú, 1998 Andrew W. Mellon Senior Research Fellow, John Carter Brown Library, Brown University, 2000 Academico Corresponsal, Academia Mexicana de la Historia, 2008 Honorary Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge, 2008