Biographical Dictionary
In 2011 the Academy published the first 20 volumes of a dictionary of national biography, the Diccionario Biográfico Español, to which some five thousand historians contributed. The publicly funded publication has been subject of controversy for failing to achieve the standards of objectivity associated with, for example, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. The British Dictionary restricted itself to persons who were deceased, and the historian Henry Kamen has argued that it was a mistake for its Spanish equivalent to include living figures among entries. However, while there was criticism of entries for some living people (such as the politician Esperanza Aguirre), the main allegations of bias concern articles relating to Francoist Spain. A notable example is the entry on Francisco Franco, written by Luis Suárez Fernández, in which Franco is defined as an autocratic head of state rather than a dictator. In contrast, the administration of the democratically elected President Negrín is described as dictatorial.
The dictionary sparked an outcry. Most objections came from voices on the left such as the party United Left and the newspaper Público: for his part, Green party senator Joan Saura asked for publication of the dictionary to be stopped and the offending volumes withdrawn. There was also a call for corrections from the Ministry of Education. The Academy announced in June 2011 that amendments would be made to the text on line and in future paper editions. However, in 2012, when the Minister of Education, Culture and Sport, made a statement on the subject of the dictionary, it was still not clear whether the Academy was willing to describe Franco as a dictator.
Read more about this topic: Real Academia De La Historia
Other articles related to "biographical dictionary, biographical":
... General citations Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians 6th edition, rev ... by Laura Diane Kuhn (born 1953) (2001) OCLC 44972043 Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Classical Musicians, by Nicolas Slonimsky, Schirmer Books ... by Laura Diane Kuhn (born 1953), Schirmer Books, New York (2000) Biographical Dictionary of American Music, By Charles Eugene Claghorn (1911–2005), Parker Publishing Co ...
... Chambers Biographical Dictionary provides concise descriptions of over 18,000 notable figures from Britain and the rest of the world ... Harrap, who were formerly based in Edinburgh, claim their Biographical Dictionary is the most comprehensive and authoritative single-volume biographical dictionary ...
... and Oudh, 1904 edition The Golden Book of India A Genealogical and Biographical Dictionary of the Ruling Princes, Chiefs, Nobles, and Other Personages, Titled Or Decorated of the Indian ... Shree Nagesh Jha – Social Science Muslims in India A Biographical Dictionary, 1983, Naresh Kumar Jain – Muslims Urban Politics in India, 1987, Mohamed Ahmad ... The Golden Book of India A Genealogical and Biographical Dictionary of the Biography Autobiography, 2001, Roper Lethbridge ...
... Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography Biographical Directory of the United States Congress Encyclopedia of American Biography Who's Who in America, published ... Biographical Dictionary of American Architects ... Biographical Dictionary of American Labor ...
Famous quotes containing the words dictionary and/or biographical:
“If someday I make a dictionary of definitions wanting single words to head them, a cherished entry will be “To abridge, expand, or otherwise alter or cause to be altered for the sake of belated improvement, one’s own writings in translation.””
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“Biography, in its purer form, confined to the ended lives of the true and brave, may be held the fairest meed of human virtue—one given and received in entire disinterestedness—since neither can the biographer hope for acknowledgment from the subject, not the subject at all avail himself of the biographical distinction conferred.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)