Lewis Hanke, Date of Birth, Date of Death

Lewis Hanke

Scholar of Latin American history

Date of Birth: 02-Jan-1905

Date of Death: 26-Mar-1993

Profession: historian

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Capricorn

Lewis Hanke (1905–1993) was a preeminent U.S.
historian of colonial Latin America, and is best known for his writings on the Spanish conquest of Latin America.
Hanke, along with two others, Irving A.
Leonard and John T.
Lanning, presented a revisionist narrative of colonial history that focused on the role of Bartolomé de las Casas, who famously advocated for the rights of Native Americans, and searched for just resolutions to the tensions between the conquistadores and the natives during the colonial period of Spanish rule.
Hanke's writings documented Las Casas' work as a political activist, historian, political theorist, and anthropologist.
His scholarship also uncovered evidence to support Hanke's claim that Las Casas did not act as the sole voice of conscience during the colonial era, but actually constituted the head of what was a larger reform movement by a number of Spanish colonists to prevent "the destruction of the Indies.” His historiography was similar to the one of his contemporary Jaime Eyzaguirre.