Publishing in The Americas

The Americas was founded exactly seventy five years ago as a means of creating better Inter-American understanding. From its inception, the journal has been sponsored by the Academy of American Franciscan History, a scholarly organ of the English-speaking Franciscan provinces of North America. In the beginning it was closely associated with the Catholic University of America, and many of its initial editorial board members were on the faculty there. Over the years, the journal has changed. It now has an editorial board separate from the Academy. It was the first major journal of Latin American History to have a woman as editor. It has changed its focus from all of the Americas, to a specialization on Latin America and the Caribbean. It is now published and distributed thanks to an agreement with Cambridge University Press. Yet several things are constant from its first days. All articles are read by all of the Assistant and Associate Editors. This means that as many as twenty scholars weigh in on each an every article that is eventually published. This level of concern has resulted in a very high quality of papers and a venue which many junior scholars choose for their first professional piece. This presentation will reflect on the history of the journal and how it currently approaches issues confronting the profession.