CF also devoted himself to translating works that he believed could shed light on the swift unfolding of events, such as Pearl Harbour: relato duma testemunha ocular [Pearl Harbour: an Eye-Witness Account] by Blake Klark, Preliminares da guerra a leste [Preliminaries to the War in the East] by Grigore Gafencu, Eu paguei a Hitler [I Paid Hitler] by Fritz Thyssen (all from 1944) or Condições de paz [Conditions of Peace] by E. H. Carr (1945). He held particular admiration for Winston S. Churchill, who, in addition to the 1940 booklet, inspired him to translate three volumes of As minhas memórias [My Memoirs] (1941, 1942, and 1943). In the 1940s, he coordinated História da Guerra 1939-1945 [History of the War 1939-1945] (1296 pp.), which brought together a variety of contributors and produced an insightful synthesis of this hecatomb that he had endeavoured to understand and comment on throughout his career. His work as a journalist marked him as somewhat of a pioneer in the field of contemporary history, an area to which few in Portugal were dedicated at the time. Almost all of the few historians then focused on the Middle Ages — whether for ideological reasons or out of caution — fearing that any attention to the modern and contemporary period might provoke political powers. While working with such rich material, CF recognises that the development of events "involved political factors and psychological factors, near causes and distant causes, obvious elements and unknown elements" ( Assim estalou , p. 158). The path of the historian was thus established, marking him as the first Portuguese who could truly be called a historian of international relations. CF does not merely recount the events of this significant period; he seeks to understand and explain them. A remarkable chapter in Os Americanos no Norte de África illustrates his endeavour to comprehend the often divergent relationship between the United States and Europe. The reasons for this divergence are glaringly evident. That is why the "American spoke of business, the French of security, the English of disinterest, the Italian of homeland, the German of demands, and the Russian of socialism." ( Os Americanos , p. 8). In the 1950s, alongside his work as a journalist at Vida Mundial [World Life], which he directed momentarily, and his contributions to A Capital [The Capital] , O Século [The Century] , and other newspapers, he published a História Secreta da Guerra [Secret History of the War] through O Século , which extended to 12 volumes. However, he did not mention the author or the individual responsible for the edition for unknown reasons. The same occurred with 50 anos da história do mundo: 1900-1950 [50 Years of World History: 1900-1950] , published in 1952.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | (Pdf)