Charles Adam Hale (June 5, 1930 – September 29, 2008) was a distinguished historian of Mexico, who published major works on nineteenth and early twentieth-century

Liberalism in Mexico Liberalism in Mexico was part of a broader nineteenth-century political trend affecting Western Europe and the Americas, including the United States, that challenged entrenched power. In Mexico, liberalism sought to make fundamental the equality ...

Life

Hale was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Lloyd and Elizabeth Hale. He attended Amherst College, graduating in 1951, and elected to

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

. In 1957, he earned a doctorate in history at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, with Frank Tannenbaum as his mentor. He married Lenore Briggs Rice, the daughter of

Paul North Rice Paul North Rice (February 9, 1888 – April 16, 1967) was an American librarian who served as Chief of the Reference Department of the New York Public Library, Executive Secretary of the Association of Research Libraries and President of the Ameri ...

and Genevieve Briggs Rice. He spent most of his academic career in the History Department of

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 col ...

. Following his retirement in 1997, he and his wife moved to Seattle, where he died of congestive heart failure on 29 September 2008. In his obituary of Hale,

Eric Van Young Eric Van Young, Distinguished Professor of History at University of California, San Diego, is an American historian of Mexico who has published extensively on socioeconomic and political history of the colonial era and the nineteenth century. He ...

wrote that “with the death of Charles Adams Hale, historians of Mexico in this country, in Mexico, and abroad, and the guild of Latin American historians more generally, have lost one of their very best and most recognized practitioners.”

Career

Hale's first monograph on Mexican liberalism, ''Mexican Liberalism in the Age of Mora'', on the early nineteenth-century, is now considered a “classic work, indispensable for understanding Mexican political life up to the mid-19th century and beyond.” In Mexico it won the

Bernardino de Sahagún Bernardino de Sahagún, OFM (; – 5 February 1590) was a Franciscan friar, missionary priest and pioneering ethnographer who participated in the Catholic evangelization of colonial New Spain (now Mexico). Born in Sahagún, Spain, in 1499, ...

prize. In 1973, he was awarded a

John Simon Guggenheim Foundation The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Olga and Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died on April 26, 1922. The organization awards Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been ...

fellowship, continuing his work on Mexican liberalism. His second monograph on the topic, ''The Transformation of Liberalism in Late 19th-Century Mexico'', won the 1990

Conference on Latin American History Conference on Latin American History, (CLAH), founded in 1926, is the professional organization of Latin American historians affiliated with the American Historical Association. It publishes the journal ''The Hispanic American Historical Review''. ...

Bolton Prize, for the best book in English on Latin American history. One scholar noted Hale was one of the few historians in the late twentieth century who focused on the

history of ideas Intellectual history (also the history of ideas) is the study of the history of human thought and of intellectuals, people who conceptualize, discuss, write about, and concern themselves with ideas. The investigative premise of intellectual his ...

in Latin America. Hale’s last monograph, published just before his death, was ''

Emilio Rabasa José Emilio Rabasa Estebanell (22 May 1856 — 25 April 1930) was a Mexican prominent writer, diplomat, and politician. He wrote extensively on constitutional law, served as Governor of Chiapas, as state congressman, chaired several Mexican A ...

and the Survival of Porfirian Liberalism'', a political biography and intellectual history. He was lauded for his academic achievements, “a first-rate scholar”, but also “because he was an admirable human being, qualities that do not always go together.”Van Young, “Charles Adams Hale”. Following his death, funds donated to the

Latin American Studies Association The Latin American Studies Association (LASA) is the largest association for scholars of Latin American studies. Founded in 1966, it has over 12,000 members, 45 percent of whom reside outside the United States (36 percent in Latin America and the C ...

created the Charles A. Hale Fellowship for Mexican History for doctoral dissertation work by a Mexican citizen.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hale, Charles A. 1930 births 2008 deaths Amherst College alumni Columbia University alumni University of Iowa faculty 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers Historians of Latin America Historians of Mexico 20th-century American male writers