Cities as people: a geneology of the formulations of Richard Morse on cities in Latin America

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to analyze, chronologically, some formulations by the American historian Richard Morse (1922-2001) on the subject of cities in Latin America and Brazil. It begins with the studies by the young Morse about São Paulo in the 1940s and 1950s, continues with his works on Latin American cities in the 1960s and 1970s, and ends with the maturity essays, especially "Cities as people", in 1995. The focus will be on the essays in which cities are understood as people and/or as representatives of the influence of Thomistic and neo-Thomistic philosophy in Latin America and Brazil.