As recently as 1960, edwin lieuwen observed that “on the general subject of militarism in Latin America no important books have yet appeared,” (Arms and Politics in Latin America, N.Y., 1960:279) a judgment that has never been seriously disputed. This is not to say that before that year the political role of the Latin American armed forces went unnoticed by historians and social scientists. On the contrary both the scholarly and popular literature dealing with the area abounds with references to militarism. From a scholarly point of view, however, the bulk of this production is unsatisfying.

Clearly the winds of change sweep over latin america today. everyhing one observes, reads, and hears about this vast culture area points to vital (often radical) social, cultural, and economic transformations which are resulting in new ways of life for these millions of Americans whose ways of life derive from Spanish, Portuguese, American Indian, and African sources. Changes in customary patterns of thought and behavior are taking place more slowly in some countries than others, and even within a nation some areas respond much more quickly to innovative efforts than do others.

On may 7, 1966, a representative group of scholars who were invited to Washington, D.C. for a meeting sponsored by the Joint Committee on Latin American Studies (of the American Council of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council) and the Hispanic Foundation of the Library of Congress, formed the Latin American Studies Association. The members of the Latin American Research Review Board, representing the institutions contributing to the support of the Review, were among the scholars invited to this meeting. When, on May 12 it was incorporated under the laws of the District of Columbia with a “perpetual” term, the new Association became a legal entity, a tax-exempt, non-profit professional body created by scholarly area specialists to meet their particular and growing needs.

Latin america has suddenly become important to an increasing number of Canada's universities and colleges. Only three years ago the situation was not at all promising as D. B. L. Hamlin and Gilíes Lalande showed in their reports to the Canadian Universities Foundation, but a more favorable climate for developing programs in this area has emerged as the federal government, the Canada Council, university administrators, and individual faculty members have taken an interest in Latin America.

Research covered in this issue includes research being carried out by institutions on the eastern seaboard of the U.S. It also includes general coverage of broad research programs of organizations such as CIDA, PIIP, etc. The next issue will cover research on Latin America being carried out at institutions in the mid-western part of the U.S. and in the northern half of Latin America. Coverage of research on Latin American topics being carried out in Europe is reported in Boletín Informativo sobre Estudios Latinoamericanos en Europa, a journal edited by Professor H. Hoetink, under the auspices of the Centro de Estudios y Documentación Latinoamericanos. A new journal, Informationsdienst der Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Deutschen Lateinamerika–Institute, second issue published in April, 1966, covers research on Latin America being carried out by German institutions. It is edited by Georg Thomas at Koln, Germany.