Levene, Ricardo (1885–1959)

Ricardo Levene (February 7, 1885–March 13, 1959) was one of the principal figures involved in the study of Argentine history in the first half of the twentieth century.

Levene attended secondary school in the city of Buenos Aires and in 1906 earned a doctorate of jurisprudence and law at the University of Buenos Aires. He had a long career as a professor and authority in the Philosophy and Letters faculties at the University of Buenos Aires and in the faculty of Humanities at the National University of La Plata. Among other positions, he was twice president of the latter university, from 1930 to 1931 and from 1932 to 1935.

Levene played a central role in the process of institutionalizing and professionalizing historical studies in Argentina. For much of the first half of the twentieth century, he was president of the Board of American History and Numismatics (Junta de Historia y Numismática), an organization that became the National Academy of History (Academia Nacional de la Historia) in 1938.

Levene is also known for his extensive work as a historian. Worth mentioning among his vast range of works are his role as director general of the Historia de la Nación Argentina (History of the Argentine Nation), a collective work whose first volume was published in 1939, and his historical Ensayo histórico sobre la revolución de mayo y Mariano Moreno (2 vols., 1920–1921; Essay on the May Revolution and Mariano Moreno, 1927).

See alsoMoreno, Mariano .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Carbia, Rómulo. Historia crítica de la Historiografía argentina. Buenos Aires: Imprenta y Casa Editoria Coni, 1940.

Scenna, Miguel Angel. Los que escribieron nuestra historia, Buenos Aires: Ediciones La Bastilla, 1976

                                     Pablo Buchbinder