This number of the HAHR pays respect to the memory of Simón Bolívar on the bicentennial of his birth. Soldier, statesman, and founder of five nations, Bolívar was also a commentator who left written records in which can be found his views on nearly every conceivable issue of his day. Those records, running to twelve volumes in one edition, used in conjunction with those of his Venezuelan and Colombian compatriots, have provided the substance for hundreds, even thousands, of essays and monographs, some meant to reconstruct for us the man and his times, others simply to reenforce a hypothesis or salve nationalistic feelings. What is remarkable, and what the contributions herein confirm beyond a doubt, is that after a century and a half of endless press runs interpreting the Liberator, he remains so intellectually stimulating as to attract such universally respected scholars as David Bushnell, Germán Carrera Damas, Simon Collier, and John Lynch, all of whom have put aside ongoing projects to contribute an essay to this commemorative issue.
We of the editorial staff take enormous pride in this number of the Review, but we also have two regrets. We are sorry that the contribution by the distinguished Venezuelan historian Germán Carrera Damas reached us so near our press date, making translation into English impossible. Our other regret is that this issue carries notices of the deaths of Sérgio Buarque de Holanda, Thomas F. McGann, and J. H. Parry, long-time colleagues that the profession can ill afford to lose.
