The Military Class in the 19th century: : The press as a field of discussion and definition of the military institution.

Abstract

The objective of this article is to analyze the discourse of military periodicals over time, related to the ideas exposed by the editors and their relationship with the characterization of the military class. The period stretching from 1850 to 1881 was a fruitful period for the military press, when a series of periodicals were launched. The central hypothesis of this article is that the military press, during the 19th century, was an important channel for disseminating ideas about what it means to be a soldier at a time when there was no effectively institutional discourse. In the absence of this discourse, it is the military press that seems to assume this role. Furthermore, opposition to the political class is also decisive in the formation of discourse. There is a significant participation of officers who graduated from the Military School in these periodicals, as this may be linked to the type of discourse conveyed by this press. The methodology used was Content Analysis to organize the documentary corpus. The press therefore becomes the spokesperson for a long process of professionalization of the Brazilian armed forces.