Miguel Luis Amunátegui

Born Jan. 11, 1828, in Santiago; died Jan. 22, 1888. Chilean public figure, educator, and historian; forerunner of the liberal positivist orientation in Chilean historiography.

In Amunátegui’s view, the historian’s task was to state the course of events and glorify patriotic figures. While he granted the masses their due role in history, he saw neither classes nor class struggle. Amunátegui considered education the mover of progress. He viewed a revolutionary, centralized dictatorship as the means to keep separatism in check and to consolidate a “regime in service of the people’s interests.”