Presidential address: Founding father: Samuel Flagg Bemis and the study of U.S.-Latin American relations

The work of Samuel Flagg Bemis, characterized here as the "founding father" of US-Latin American studies, is examined. Bemis' work functions as a kind of benchmark for the 1930s through the 1950s and also serves as a point of reference for comparing and contrasting historiographical tendencies during the past half-century.