William Brandon’s New Worlds for Old is best described as an extended essay, with digressions, on European notions of liberty and the effect on them of accounts of the way of life of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. The author argues that “the Western world’s concept of liberty changed at some point following contact with the New World” (p. 143). In particular, it began to incorporate the idea of “masterlessness,” which Brandon sees as basic to modern notions of liberty. This idea of masterlessness was, in his view, inspired by reports from the New World, whose societies were founded on ideas different from those at the base of most Old World societies. He also argues that these reports were “for the most part seriously recorded and largely factual” (p. 165), as against the hypothesis that Europeans were projecting onto the New World ideas and expectations culled from traditional literary sources.
Although Brandons argument is suggestive, it is not systematically presented, and the book as a whole, with its convoluted style and its discursive reflections on all manner of unrelated topics, often makes for exasperating reading. The author’s thesis, too, raises certain difficulties which he is unable to resolve. As he himself admits, social stratification was to be found in the societies of the New World as well as of the Old, so that the “masterlessness” may often have been more apparent than real. But, accepting that many observers were indeed genuinely impressed by the degree of liberty and equality to be found in the Americas, the problem remains of how much influence to attribute to their reports, and how far the positive image that they purveyed of the Amerindians was counterbalanced or outweighed by the negative images deriving from their lack of Christianity and civility. To test the thesis adequately, it would also be necessary to consider at greater length than the author permits himself those elements in the European religious, legal, and literary heritage capable of nurturing the ideas of liberty and equality that he associates with the modern world. Readers will search the book in vain for this kind of systematic analysis. On the other hand, they will find in it a useful arsenal of contemporary quotations, primarily from French sources, on the alternative cultures of America, and, mingled with them, ideas, reflections, and speculations which may help to goad or stimulate them into fresh thinking about the impact of the discovery of America on the development of European attitudes and behavior.
