Publishing in the Hispanic American Historical Review

In February 1918, when the journal Hispanic American Historical Review (HAHR) published its inaugural issue in the waning months of World War I, a letter from President Woodrow Wilson was reprinted on page one in which he celebrated the journal's birth as something that "ought to lead to very important results both for scholarship and for the increase of cordial feeling throughout the Americas," that is, as having both scholarly and political implications. Berkeley Professor Charles E. Chapman, eminent historian of Spain and Latin America, reminded readers of the importance of the colonial history of the Americas and its legacies: "When it is remembered that more than a third of the area of the United States was once under the dominion of Spain, and that the rest has during three centuries had large relations with Spanish and Portuguese America, it seems fairly obvious that Hispanic American history should be largely cultivated among us." This presentation will examine the 101-year history of HAHR as a window into the continuities and changes in historical research about Latin American, and what scholars did and do think of as the most pressing historical questions to ask about Latin America and its connections to the wider world. As we reflect on that long history, what roles might scholarly journals devoted to the history of Latin America play in our current political, economic, environmental, and social contexts? How might the journal and the research it highlights, contribute to broader, historically informed discussions in our society of the important issues of the day?