WILGUS, A. CURTIS (Ed.). Hispanic American Essays. Pp. viii, 391. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1942. $5.00

• Author: Arthur P. Whitaker
• Published date: 01 November 1942
• Date: 01 November 1942
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/000271624222400152
• Subject Matter: Articles

214

obstacle

to

co-operation

between

the

pan-

American

nations

and

the

rest

of

the

world.

Mr.

Humphrey

devotes

all

of

one

chap-

ter

to

this

question

(Chap.

VIII,

Pan

America

in

the

World

Order)

and

also

has

something

to

say

about

special

aspects

of

it

in

other

chapters.

His

conclusion,

which

this

reviewer

regards

as

the

correct

one,

is

that

the

pan-American

movement

has

not

been

and

should

not

be

an

instrument

of

hemisphere

isolationism,

and

that

it

can

and

should

be

integrated

with

the

larger

international

system

(&dquo;the

world

system,&dquo;

Mr.

Humphrey

calls

it)

which

it

is

hoped

will

emerge

from

the

present

war.

This

conclusion

in

turn

forms

one

of

the

con-

siderations

(though

only

one

of

many)

on

which

Mr.

Humphrey

bases

his

final

con-

clusion

that

Canada

ought

to

join

the

pan-

American

organization

as

soon

as

the

neces-

sary

arrangements

can

be

made.

As

stated

above,

most

of

this

book

might

have

been

the

work

of

a

writer

in

any

English-speaking

country.

It

could

hardly

have

been

the

work

of

a

Latin

American,

for

it

pays

relatively

little

attention

to

the

enormous

body

of

Latin

American

litera-

ture

on

this

subject.

Some

of

the

leading

works

in

Spanish

have been

cited,

but

rela-

tively

few

of

them,

and

so

far

as

this

re-

viewer

has

noted,

not

a

single

Brazilian

work

in

Portuguese

is

cited.

It

is

also

very

regrettable

that

the

works

cited

by

the

author

are

listed

only

in

footnotes

scat-

tered

throughout

the

volume:

if

only

for

the

reader’s

convenience,

they

should

have

been

brought

together

in

a

bibliography

at

the

end

of

the

volume.

Defects

so

easy

to

remedy

should

not

be

permitted

to

mar

so

valuable

a

work

as

this.

It

is

to

be

hoped

that

they

will

be

remedied

in

the

second

edition,

which

we

have

no

doubt

the

reading

public

in

the

United

States

and

Canada

will

be

intelligent

enough

to

re-

quire.

ARTHUR

P.

WHITAKER

University

of

Pennsylvania

WILGUS,

A.

CURTIS

(Ed.).

Hispanic

American

Essays.

Pp.

viii,

391.

Chapel

Hill:

University

of

North

Carolina

Press,

1942.

$5.00.

This

posthumous

tribute

to

James

Alex-

ander

Robertson

was

richly

deserved.

He

was

a

prominent

member

of

a

group

of

American

scholars

who

did

important

pio-

neering

work

in

Latin

American

history

and

inter-American

cultural

relations

long

be-

fore

the

Good

Neighbor

Policy

made

it

popular

and

profitable

to

cultivate

this

field.

His

scholarly

activities

were

multi-

farious,

but

he

was

probably

most

widely

known

as

editor

of

the

Hispanic

American

Historical

Review

from

its

founding

in

1916

to

his

death

in

1939.

The

present

volume

was

originally

planned

for

presenta-

tion

to

him

in

1939;

but

he

died

before

it

was

completed,

and

in

the

interval

that

has

elapsed

since

then,

three

of

the

con-

tributors

(Charles

E.

Chapman,

Chester

Lloyd

Jones,

and

Percy

Alvin

Martin)

also

have

died.

Through

most

of

his

career

Robertson

was

archivist

or

librarian,

and

did

little

teaching.

Consequently

this

volume,

un-

like

the

usual

academic

Festschrift,

is

made

up

of

the

contributions

not

of

his

former

students

but

of

his

friends

and

associates.

Partly

for

the

same

reason,

no

doubt,

the

volume

contains

a

more

heterogeneous

col-

lection

of

articles

than

is

usual

in

such

cases;

but

at

least

they

all

relate

to

Latin

America.

In

an

introductory

section

the

editor

discusses

Robertson’s

life

and

published

writings.

In

variety

the

latter

resemble

the

present

volume

and

at

one

important

point

they

exceed

it,

for

Robertson’s

first

work

(in

collaboration

with

Emma

Blair)

was

a

55-volume

collection

on

the

Philippines,

which

is

not

represented

in

this

volume.

The

rest

of

the

book

consists

of

eighteen

articles,

which

are

equally

divided

into

two

sections,

&dquo;The

Colonial

Era&dquo;

and

&dquo;The

In-

dependent

Era.&dquo;

Both

sections

contain

many

valuable

articles,

but

readers

of

this

journal

will

probably

be

more

interested

in

the

latter

section,

particularly

in

J.

L.

Mecham’s

&dquo;Federal

Intervention

in

Mex-

ico,&dquo;

which

in

part

duplicates

his

article

in

&dquo;Mexico

Today&dquo;

(THE

ANNALS,

Vol.

208,

March

1940);

J.

F.

Rippy’s

sketch

of

Justo

Rufino

Barrios,

Guatemalan

dictator

about

1875

and

would-be

Bismarck

of

Central

American

unification;

C.

L.

Jones’s

&dquo;Indian

Labor

in

Guatemala,&dquo;

which,

after

tracing

the

history

of

the

subject

through

four

centuries,

points

out

that

by

the

re-

form

law

of

1934

&dquo;the

worker

was

freed

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