This book-length intellectual biography of Andrés Bello, first published in 2001, is the first to appear in English. Bello, the most important intellectual of nineteenth-century Latin America, made enduring contributions to the fields of international law, civil legislation, grammar and philology. He was also a poet of note, a literary critic and an influential statesman whose contributions to nation-building and Spanish American identity are widely recognized across the region. In this book, Jaksic provides an archival-based critical account that challenges the celebratory literature that has dominated Bello studies. He demonstrates how knowledge of Bello's contributions illuminate not only Latin American history, but also current issues of imperial fragmentation, nationalism and language.