Customer Reviews

The Old World and the New: 1492-1650 (Canto)

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J.H. Elliott is one of the great historians, and this book (despite being two generations old) is still worth reading. The themes are stimulating, the evidence wide-ranging and well marshalled. It is a model of how to integrate cultural, economic, intellectual, social and political histories.

I must also note that OccamsRazor either is reviewing the wrong book, or is very confused. Elliott does not have the political agenda attributed to him, and the book does not mention--at all--the American founders, the Constitution or the Iroquois Confederacy, which is not surprising given that the American Revolution occurred more than a century after the period covered by this book.

Some rather fascinating information about the exchange of materials and ideas between Europe and the New World. However, the veracity of the data is corrupted by a rather crude but ubiquitous " Native American-good, European--bad" attitude. It is unfortunate, that the consistent political agenda makes this title difficult to accept as work of genuine scholarship. For instance, the author makes a claim that American Founders' ideas were based in their entirety(!) upon the Constitution of the Iroquois Nations, while discounting in its entirety(!) the influence Classical thought and Enlightenment has had upon the Founders. Indeed, the author claims that the ideas of Enlightenment were largely imported from the New World ( see Noble Savage). Verdict:a fun read, but highly suspect scholarship.

Not recommended for impressionable readers incapable of critical analysis.