La formación del pensamiento político del Carlismo (1810-1875) by Alexandra Wilhelmsen (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 259 The one exception to this was the small but socially significant group of Old Catholics who rejected the dogma and were expelled from the Catholic community . The chapter on the Old Catholics is the last in the book and is clearly a vital part of the author's thesis. He departs from the conventional Catholic view of the Old Catholics as a sect composed primarily of overconscientious academics and theologians and those with marital frustrations of various kinds (although his statistics confirm the preponderance of men, single women, and couples in mixed marriages). He also denies that they were a sect or a "secession " from the Church; rather, he sees them as they undoubtedly saw themselves , as truly the "old" Catholics of the Rhineland Bürgertum, who had stayed exactly as they had been earlier while the new ultramontanism took over and changed the Church. According to Mergel, it was intense social pressure rather than deep religious conviction that kept most of the prominent families within mainstream Catholicism. In addition to its provocative thesis, the book provides a wealth of information about the economies, educational systems (Mergel confirms the muchdiscussed "deficit" in Catholic education), municipal government, and social life in the three cities. Ellen L. Evans Georgia State University La formación del pensamiento político del Carlismo (1810-1875). By Alexandra Wilhelmsen. [Fundación Hernando de Larramendi.] (Madrid: Editorial ACTAS—Colección Luis Hernando Larramendi. 1995. Pp. 11,630. Pts. 4,000,- paperback.) Rarely is the reviewer of a scholarly work able to claim that he has been privileged to read a book which will stand as the classic study in the field for some time. Such is the assessment of this historian regarding Alexandra Wilhelmsen's Laformación delpensamientopolítico del Carlismo (1810-1875). For decades Hispanicists and historians of the Catholic Church alike have been in need of an intellectual, objective, and thorough analysis of Carlism, especially one that focuses on Carlist thought. ProfessorWilhelmsen, an American who lived in Spain for years and who knows Carlism exceedingly well, has filled this dearth with her well documented tome. Because they engaged in three wars aimed at placing a traditionalist prince on the throne of Spain between 1833 and 1876, the Carlists are well known militarily . However, Carlist political history and political thought have been relegated to a secondary place, if considered at all. Professor Wilhelmsen, who teaches both Spanish history and language at the University of Dallas, has started to correct this scholarly imbalance with her study of Carlist political thought. 260 BOOK REVIEWS The ideological analysis in La formación del pensamiento político del Carlismo (1810-1875) is set against a historical background artistically kneaded through the narrative with superb skill and insight. Wilhelmsen carefully organized her book into an introduction devoted to the theoretical underpinnings and institutional organization of the Old Regime, and five major parts, subdivided into thirty-six chapters. They are dedicated to the transition in Spain from the old order to the new liberal and capitalist system through six wars, loss of Empire, changes in government, economic and social upheavals, and a reduction of the institutional Church. ProfessorWilhelmsen explains that Carlism (which lasted well into the twentieth century) was a multifaceted movement with juridical, political, and religious aspects. The Carlist motto, "God, fatherland, regional autonomy, king," embodied a wide range of theoretical precepts, legal principles, political and economic institutions, and traditions of various kinds. Wilhelmsen makes a compelling case that the Carlists did not merely defend the old order, but consistently countered the abstract ideas of the French Enlightenment and the models of the French Revolution espoused by the Spanish liberals with proposals for renovating Spain's own political institutions. Throughout the six-hundred-page text it becomes clear that the Carlists were the greatest defenders of the Church and of Spain's traditional sacral society during the troubled nineteenth century, and also composed a large portion of Spain's Catholic intellectuals during that time. Most are virtually unknown in our day. Not many Spaniards, and even fewer Americans, have read anything by RafaelVêlez, Miguel Sanz y Lafuente, Magín Ferrer, Pedro de la Hoz,Vicente Pou, C...