Harold Johnson was born in Hastings, Nebraska, in 1931. He received his BA (1953) and MA (1960) from Cambridge University in the UK, and a doctorate from the University of Chicago, where he specialized in the history of medieval Spain, in 1963. He is now a scholar in residence in the history department at the University of Virginia.
Francis A. Dutra received a BA from St. Bonaventure University in 1960, an MA in Luso-Brazilian studies at New York University in 1963, and a PhD in Latin American History from New York University in 1968. A specialist in the history of Colonial Brazil, medieval and early modern Portuguese history, and European overseas expansion, he is professor of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara.