author

Charles E. (Charles Edward) Chapman

1880–1941

A historian of Spain, California, and Latin America, he turned deep archival research into books that helped English-language readers make sense of the Spanish-speaking world. His work ranges from colonial California to modern Hispanic America, with a scholar’s care and a traveler’s curiosity.

1 Audiobook

A History of Spain

A History of Spain

by Rafael Altamira, Charles E. (Charles Edward) Chapman

About the author

Born in Franklin, New Hampshire, in 1880, he first trained in law, graduating from Tufts College in 1902 and earning an LL.B. from Harvard in 1905. After several years in legal practice, he shifted to history at the University of California, where he completed graduate work and went on to teach for the rest of his career.

His scholarship was especially shaped by time spent in the Archivo General de Indias in Seville from 1912 to 1914, where he researched the history of the Pacific Coast and the American Southwest. That work fed into major books including The Founding of Spanish California and History of California: The Spanish Period, and later into broader studies such as Colonial Hispanic America and Republican Hispanic America.

He also played an important part in the growth of Hispanic American studies in the United States. A member of the board of editors of the Hispanic American Historical Review for many years, he was recognized with honors including the Mitre Medal from the Hispanic Society of America and the Don Diego Portales medal from Chile. He died in 1941.