The decision of the Handbook editors in 1964 to divide the Latin American field into the Social Sciences and the Humanities and to devote the volume in alternate years to one of these groupings is herewith put on trial. The result, in the opinion of this reviewer, is highly satisfactory. The two-year span has advantages and disadvantages, but the former seem far to outweigh the latter. Editors and contributors are given the opportunity for a somewhat broader perspective in their selection of the several thousand books and articles to be listed as truly significant. The number of entries may be cut down, but this is not always an unmixed misfortune, for the ones which make the grade are likely to be more meaningful.
The Humanities volume is devoted to the fields of art, history, language, literature (prose fiction, poetry, drama), music, and philosophy. History is accorded 153 pages, literature, its closest rival, 92 pages. The editors in their Introduction have carefully detailed the major changes present in this Volume 28. D. Lincoln Canfield has replaced Daniel Wogan as head of the Language section and Daniel Reedy, the veteran Irving Leonard in Literature. Sometimes the changes touch newer subdivisions within sections, with occasional additions to the contributors and staff or minor shifts of responsibilities as to area, this particularly in History.
There are three more comprehensive Introductions than HLAS ordinarily presents, and these are particularly valuable. Donald Robertson offers “The HLAS and the History of Art in Spanish America, 1948-1965: A Synopsis”; Canfield, “Latin American Linguistics: A review of the State of Research”; and Charles Gibson, “Spanish American Historiography: A Review of Two Decades.” Historians will welcome Gibson’s excellent analysis, pointing up trends not only in United States historiography, but also in that emanating from Latin America and Europe.
It should be noted that the familiar Earl J. Pariseau, who is off to another assignment, has passed on the baton of editorship to Henry E. Adams, after having worked with the latter in the preliminary stages of preparation of this volume. There is compelling evidence to assure scholars that the fine bibliographical traditions of the Handbook have come to rest in very competent hands.
