author
William R. (William Ray) Manning
1871–1942
A pioneering historian of Latin America, he helped bring early U.S.–Latin American diplomacy into clearer focus for both scholars and general readers. His work ranged from the Nootka Sound dispute to the independence movements of Spanish America and relations with Mexico.
1 Audiobook
The Nootka Sound Controversy: A dissertation
by William R. (William Ray) Manning
About the author
William Ray Manning was an American historian whose career centered on the diplomatic history of the Americas. Early in the twentieth century, he emerged as one of the scholars helping define Latin American history as a serious field of study in the United States.
His early major work, The Nootka Sound Controversy, grew out of doctoral research completed at the University of Chicago. He also taught history at Purdue University, served on the faculty of the University of Texas, and later became known for his long association with Columbia University. Across his writing, he returned often to the ways the United States, Spain, Mexico, and the new Latin American nations shaped one another through diplomacy and conflict.
Manning also edited and compiled important documentary material, including volumes of Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States Concerning the Independence of the Latin-American Nations. That kind of careful source work helped later historians build on a stronger foundation, and it explains why his name still appears so often in studies of early inter-American relations.