Pedro Martins

Universidade NOVA de Lisboa | NOVA · Institute of Contemporary History (IHC)

Historically, Portugal was frequently featured in the public eye for not complying with international labour standards. Throughout the period of Portuguese colonization of Africa, complaints by governmental, non-governmental organizations or individual humanitarians led to international controversies and international processes against Portugal. In...

Well studied in historiography, nineteenth-century debates on Portugal’s decadence – in Portuguese “decadência” – left a deep and long-lasting impression in this country’s historical culture. The idea that Portugal had reached its apogee and was inexorably losing ground in the concert of other European peoples led its intellectuals to search in the...

Widely underestimated as a period of civilizational decline during the Modern Age, the Middle Ages were largely rehabilitated by Romanticism. In Portugal, authors such as Alexandre Herculano represented the medieval period as a time of progress and greatness capable of inspiring a decadent nation. It is the purpose of this article to take stock of...

In recent decades, the study of historiography, historical memory and the uses of the past has become a subject of increasing attention in academic circles. Medievalism in particular, commonly understood as the representation or use of the Middle Ages in the post-medieval period, assumes here an significant role, given the importance of the medieva...

The writings of António Sardinha (1887–1925) have still not generated the interest they deserve in the panorama of studies on Portuguese historiography. A poet, politician, and historian isolated from the main academic circles, Sardinha was the leading doctrinal figure of the movement known as Integralismo Lusitano, founded in 1913 in the aftermath...

The acknowledged importance of seaside tourism in the economy of Portugal and in the construction of the country's international and domestic image has strangely not resulted in broad narratives concerning the history of this phenomenon. The Portuguese seafaring tradition, repeatedly commemorated by public authorities, seems to have eclipsed the im...

Não obstante a sua proximidade com Lisboa e a sua importância a nível nacional, a Costa da Caparica não tem sido estudada na sua evolução histórica como centro turístico balnear no século XX, ao contrário da sua congénere Costa do Sol. Contudo, sabemos hoje que, além de se ter tornado como que uma “praia favorita” dos lisboetas representando um mod...