Bulnes, Francisco (1847–1924)

Francisco Bulnes (b. 4 October 1847; d. 22 September 1924), Mexican political writer. Bulnes, a native of Mexico City, received a civil and mining engineering degree from the National School of Mines. After 1874 he turned to politics, journalism, and economic affairs. He was periodically a national deputy and senator for thirty years, and in 1893 and 1903 led in the effort of the Científico group to limit presidential power. He served on numerous committees devoted to banking, mining, and financial legislation, and in 1885 he wrote on the British debt.

Bulnes won notoriety for his polemical works attacking Benito Juárez and the doctrinaire liberal (Jacobin) tradition in Mexican politics, including El verdadero Juárez (1904) and Juárez y las revoluciones de Ayutla y de reforma (1905). He later defended the regime of Porfirio Díaz in El verdadero Díaz y la revolución (1920). His intellectual orientation was positivist, and as a writer he was influenced by Hippolyte Taine. His critical insights have attracted many modern scholars to his work.

See alsoCientíficos .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

George Lemus, Francisco Bulnes: Su vida y sus obras (1965).

Additional Bibliography

Jiménez Marce, Rogelio. La pasión por la polémica: El debate sobre la historia en la época de Francisco Bulnes. Mexico, D.F.: Instituto de Investigaciones Dr. José María Luis Mora, 2003.

                                           Charles A. Hale