The Spanish literary critic, historian, and jurist Rafael Altamira y Crevea (1866-1951) was, in his generation, the foremost Spanish proponent of the scientific method in history. He devoted his life as a jurist to international peace.

Rafael Altamira was born in Alicante on Feb. 10, 1866. He formed a lifelong attachment to his native city and was once described by a disciple as a man with "a southern character, always enthusiastic and optimistic." He received his doctorate at the University of Madrid in 1887. His first major work, History of Communal Property (1888), established a European-wide reputation and was soon translated into Russian and German. His next work, The Teaching of History (1891), marked him as the major advocate of scientific historical writing in Spain. It gave a new direction to historical scholarship on the Peninsula.

Altamira had already published critical literary articles as a student. He maintained this interest through his early...