First published in the early 1970s,
Tree of Hate
is Philip Powell's exploration of "the Black Legend"—the popular myth that colonial Spain and her military and religious agents were brutal and unrelenting in their conquest of the Americas.
"Powell seeks not merely to trace the origins of what he calls Hispanophobia but to analyze its impact on American education, textbooks, religion, and especially foreign policy. . . . The evidence easily demonstrates that English-speaking scholars and diplomats speak with a biased tongue. . . . Too many critics of Spain, to use Powell's central theme, have merely erected a 'Tree of Hate' out of ignorance or to justify their own prejudices and activities. . . . Powell's book deserves careful reading."—
Journal of American History