William Robert Shepherd (1871 in Charleston, South Carolina - 1934 in Berlin, Germany) was an American cartographer and historian specializing in American and Latin American history. In 1896, Shepherd completed his PhD at Columbia University. He then studied in Berlin and finally became professor of history at Columbia University. He is best known for his Historical Atlas, published in several editions. He is considered a pioneer in the field of Latin American history. In Shepherd's address to the 1909 meeting of the American Historical Association, he decried that in the United States the history of the western hemisphere focuses on the English colonies and ignores or disparages the history of Spanish, Portuguese, and French America. He called for a more balanced history of the Americas.

Reproduction of the original.

This is a history book about Latin America first published in 1919. The book examines the influences of Spain and Portugal on American history and on the continent of South America, and also looks at the republics of South America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. It describes the battles fought to gain their independence and the leading figures of that time.