João Camilo de Oliveira Torres

João Camilo de Oliveira Torres (31 July 1915 – 31 January 1973) was a Brazilian professor, civil servant and historian.

Biography

Torres was born in Itabira, Minas Gerais. His great-grandfather João Camillo de Oliveira, was a militant of the Conservative Party and fought in 1842 against the Luzias. His grandfather Luiz Camillo was also a noted Saquarema.

He earned an MA in Philosophy from the FNFi, successor of UDF, extinguished when his brother Luís Camilo de Oliveira Netto (1904–1953) was acting vice-rector (1939).

He started writing for newspapers in 1937. Five years later he was professor of Moral Philosophy at the UFMG Philosophy Faculty and of Brazilian History at the Santa Maria Faculty (today PUC-Minas), also in Belo Horizonte.

He was a professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais, the Federal University of Minas Gerais, and the Universidade Mineira de Arte, and was a member of the Minas Gerais Academy of Letters (chair #39), the Minas Gerais Institute of Geography and History, and the Minas Gerais Council of Culture. A career employee of the IAPC, he died at his desk as superintendent of the INPS.

João Camilo de Oliveira Torres died in Belo Horizonte in 1973.

Writings

Throughout his historiographical career he wrote — and almost completed — what would be his Histories of Political Ideas in Brazil, composed of the following volumes, in this order: I - Interpretation of Brazilian Reality; II - The Church and Brazilian Society; III - The Political Thought of the United Kingdom; IV - The Crowned Democracy; V - The Builders of the Empire; VI - The Formation of Federalism in Brazil; VII - Positivism in Brazil; VIII - Presidentialism in Brazil; IX - Party Life in Brazil; X - Social Stratification in Brazil; XI - The Revolutionary Idea in Brazil, XII - Texts and Documents for the History of the Monarchy in Brazil.

Among his extensive work, the history of ideas is undoubtedly his greatest contribution to national historiography, and his work The Crowned Democracy: Political Theory of the Empire of Brazil was awarded the Joaquim Nabuco Prize, by the Brazilian Academy of Letters in 1958, and also the City of Belo Horizonte Prize in 1952. The arrangement of the collection does not follow a chronological order of release, due to the author's difficulty in finding material to complete certain works, and this order was proposed a posteriori by the author.

Of the proposed works, only two were not released, volumes III and XII, namely, Political Thought in the United Kingdom and Texts and Documents for the History of the Monarchy in Brazil, respectively. It is necessary to point out that the works were released by different publishers, and some volumes were released with different titles from the proposed one, volume II - The Church and Brazilian Society having been released as History of religious ideas in Brazil, and volume IX - Party life in Brazil as Political and Social Institutions in Brazil. Volume XI - The revolutionary idea in Brazil was released posthumously.

Works

• O Sentido e a Finalidade do Ensino Universitário (1940)
• O Positivismo no Brasil (1943)
• Homem e a Montanha (1944)
• Libertação do Liberalismo (1949)
• João Surrinha nas Montanhas (1952)
• A Crise da Previdência Social no Brasil (1954)
• A Democracia Coroada (1957)
• Do Governo Régio (1958)
• Educação e Liberdade (1958)
• A Propaganda Poética (1959)
• Formação do Federalismo no Brasil (1961)
• Um Mundo em Busca de Segurança (1961)
• Harmonia Política (1961)
• A Extraordinária Aventura do Homem Comum (1961)
• História de Minas Gerais (1961–62)
• A Cartilha do Parlamentarismo (1962)
• O Presidencialismo no Brasil (1962)
• Desenvolvimento e Justiça (1962)
• Teoria Geral da História (1963)
• História do Império (1963)
• Razão e Destino da Revolução (1964)
• A Revolução Francesa (1964)
• Estratificação Social no Brasil (1965)
• Instituições Políticas e Sociais do Brasil (1965)
• O Conselho de Estado (1965)
• Educação Moral e Cívica (1967)
• Estudos Sociais Brasileiros (1968)
• Lazer e Cultura (1968)
• Os Construtores do Império (1968)
• História das Idéias Religiosas no Brasil (1968)
• Natureza e Fins da Sociedade Política, Visão Cristã do Estado (1968)
• Interpretação da Realidade Brasileira (1969)
• A Igreja de Deus em Belo Horizonte (1971)
• A Idéia Revolucionária no Brasil (1981)
• O Homem Interino (1998)
• O Elogio do Conservadorismo (2016)

References

• Caldeira, Rodrigo Coppe (2011). "O Catolicismo Militante em Minas Gerais: Aspectos do Pensamento Histórico-teológico de João Camilo de Oliveira Torres," Revista Brasileira de História das Religiões. ANPUH, Ano IV, No. 10, pp. 233–76.
• Ferreira, Gabriela N.; Botelho, André (2010). Revisão do Pensamento Conservador: Ideias e Política no Brasil. São Paulo: Hucitec.
• Macedo, Ubiratan Borges de (1979). "O Tradicionalismo no Brasil." In: Adolpho Crippa, ed., As Ideias Políticas no Brasil. São Paulo: Convívio.
• Mainwaring, Scott (2004). Igreja Católica e Política no Brasil (1916-1985). São Paulo: Brasiliense.
• Villaça, Antonio Carlos (2006). O Pensamento Católico no Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira.

External links

• Works by João Camilo de Oliveira Torres at Hathi Trust
• João Camilo de Oliveira Torres
• Torres, João Camilo de Oliveira