John Tate Lanning (born 1902, died 15 August 1976, Durham, North Carolina) was a historian of

Spanish America Spanish America refers to the Spanish territories in the Americas during the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The term "Spanish America" was specifically used during the territories' Spanish Empire, imperial era between 15th and 19th centur ...

and held the James B. Duke Professor Emeritus position at

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

. He was a major scholar of colonial Spanish American history and worked to strengthen organizations devoted to Latin American scholarship. In one obituary he was called, “a true giant” in the field. His work on the

Spanish Enlightenment The ideas of the Age of Enlightenment () came to History of Spain, Spain in the 18th century with the Spanish royal family, new Bourbon dynasty, following the death of the last House of Habsburg#Spanish Habsburgs: Kings of Spain, Kings of Portugal ...

in Spanish America challenged received understandings of Spanish

obscurantism In philosophy, obscurantism or obscurationism is the Anti-intellectualism, anti-intellectual practice of deliberately presenting information in an wikt:abstruse, abstruse and imprecise manner that limits further inquiry and understanding of a subj ...

. In 1957, Lanning’s book ''The Eighteenth-Century Enlightenment in the University of San Carlos de Guatemala'' won the first Herbert E. Bolton Prize of the

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'' ...

for the best book in English. He served as editor of ''

The Hispanic American Historical Review The ''Hispanic American Historical Review'' is a quarterly, peer-reviewed, scholarly journal of Latin American history, the official publication of the Conference on Latin American History, the professional organization of Latin American histori ...

'', expanding its readership and maintaining high standards for each issue. He served as chair of the Conference on Latin American History, the professional organization of Latin American historians, in 1958. Lanning was a student of Herbert E. Bolton, a leading figure in U.S. borderlands history at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

; and Lanning's early publications were on Southeast borderlands history, both monographs and edited historical texts. He began pursuing Spanish American intellectual history when he held a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

in 1930. As editor of The Hispanic American Historical Review, he expanded the circulation of the journal arranging with the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (and later the

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) is a nonpartisan international affairs think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C., with operations in Europe, South Asia, East Asia, and the Middle East, as well as the United States. Foun ...

by giving gratis copies to scholars in Latin America.Steele, pp. 516-17.

Works

*''The Spanish missions of Georgia''. Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina press 1935 *''A Brief Description of Carolina on the Coasts of Florida'', editor 1944 *''The legend that Governor Moral Sánchez was hanged''. Savannah, Georgia Historical Society, 1954. *''The Saint Augustine Expedition of 1740: Report of the South Carolina General Assembly'', editor, Columbia SC: South Carolina Archives Department 1954 *''Reales cédulas de la Real y Pontificia Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala''. Guatemala, Editorial Universitaria, 1954. *''Academic Culture in the Spanish Colonies''. London: Oxford University Press 1940 *”Research Possibilities in the Cultural History of Spain in America” ‘’Hispanic American Historical Review’’ 16 (1936) *''The University in the Kingdom of Guatemala''. Ithaca, N.Y., Cornell University Press 1955 *''The Eighteenth-Century Enlightenment in the University of San Carlos de Guatemala'', Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press 1956. *''Pedro de la Torre: Doctor to Conquerors''. Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University Press 1974. *''The royal protomedicato : the regulation of the medical professions in the Spanish empire''. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1985.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lanning, John Tate 1903 births 1976 deaths Latin Americanists Historians of Latin America Duke University faculty University of California, Berkeley alumni 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers American male non-fiction writers