Review
Reviewed Work(s): Brazil through the Eyes of William James: Letters, Diaries, and
Drawings, 1865-1866 by Maria Helena P. T. Machado and John M. Monteiro
Review by: Dale T. Graden
Source: The Americas, Vol. 64, No. 3 (Jan., 2008), pp. 431-432
Published by: Cambridge University Press
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BOOK REVIEWS 431
CULTURAL/LITERARY STUDIES
Brazil Through the Eyes of William James: Letters, Diaries, and Drawings, 1865-
1866. Edited by Maria Helena P.T. Machado; translated by John M. Monteiro.
Bilingual Edition. Cambridge, Massachusetts: David Rockefeller Center for
Latin American Studies/ Harvard University Press, 2006. Pp. 230. Illustrations.
Notes. $29.95 cloth.
On April 1, 1865, William James set off on board the steamship Colorado from
New York City with a destination of Brazil. Twenty-three years old and a second year
student at Harvard Medical School, James was one of six student members of the
Thayer Expedition led by the famed Swiss naturalist Louis Agassiz. During his time
in Brazil, James penned several letters to his parents and brother and sister, kept a
personal journal, and sketched numerous drawings of what he saw. The extraordinary
racial, biological, geographical and environmental diversity of mid-nineteenth cen-
tury Brazil had a profound impact on the New York-born James. With keen insight
and meticulous research, Maria Machado suggests that James's sensitivity and empa-
thy with the diverse folk he encountered enabled him to "accept the world that sur-
rounded him, together with its cultural codes, on its own terms" (p. 48).
As head of the Thayer scientific expedition, Agassiz demonstrated arrogance and
closed mindedness. The two decades leading up to the trip have been characterized
as a period of "rapid change arising from the intense challenge to old divisions and
hierarchy of knowledge" (p. 29). Agassiz did not adapt to or accept such changes.
Instead, he ascribed to creationism and scientific racism. While in the city of Manaus,
at the mouth of the Amazon River, Agassiz established the Bureau d'Anthropologie.
There an assistant under the orders of Agassiz took pictures of inhabitants of the
region, mainly naked mestizo Amazonian women. In the words of Maria Machado,
"the photographs that have survived [currently housed at the Peabody Museum at
Harvard University] still witness the violent appropriation of bodies and souls in the
name of science" (p. 23). Three of these stark photographs are included in the book.
From the start of the trip, William James asserted his intellectual independence
from Agassiz. Claiming, "never did a man [Agassiz] utter a greater amount of
humbug," James rejected creationism and supported Darwin's views of evolution as
soon as he learned of them (p. 76). He sought to analyze the world around him in a
rational manner using materialist and scientific protocol. James's personal reflec-
tions during the journey demonstrate an unceasing determination to interpret sub-
jective experiences and place them into a philosophic structure. The scholar Daniel
Bjork posits that James experienced psychological death and then rebirth while in
Brazil. Specifically, James contracted smallpox during his three months in Rio de
Janeiro, which caused depression and a temporary loss of clear vision. Rebirth
occurred through river travel in the Amazon and close interactions with the lush
tropics. In his letter to his parents of October 21, 1865, James wrote "my health at
present is probably better than it ever was in my life. I never felt in better spirits, nor
more satisfied than I do now with the way in which I am spending my time" (p. 79).
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432 BOOK REVIEWS
This book also offers impressive descriptions of natural environments. One reads
of African porters traversing the streets of Rio de Janeiro, how James awakened to
the sounds of an Amazonian jaguar at night, and the constant "invasion of several
billion mosquitoes and flies" (p. 89). It also provides helpful insights about histori-
cal milieu. For example, upon landing his canoe on a beach along the TapajOs River
(the volume includes a helpful map), two men who had been standing nearby
quickly fled into the forest. James astutely observed they ran out of fear, "thinking
we were come [sic] to impress them into the army [to fight on behalf of Brazil in
the war against Paraguay]" (p. 72). The ties between slavery and abolition in Brazil
and the United States, and the complex themes of masculinity, frontier and colo-
nialism are also all addressed.
Using the materials written by William James and her impressive knowledge of
Brazilian history, Maria Machado has shown vividly the myriad of ways that the
eight-month trip to Brazil impacted the intellectual development and worldview of
one of the great modern philosophers. This story merits close consideration in the
twenty-first century.
University of Idaho DALE T. GRADEN
Moscow, Idaho
Reforma, novela y naciOn en el siglo XIX. By Alejandro Cortazar. Puebla, Mexico:
Benemerita Universidad AutOnoma de Puebla, 2006. Pp. 228. Notes. Bibliogra-
phy. Index.
Excelente labor la de Alejandro Cortazar en este estudio que presenta los
avatares del nacionalismo mexicano a traves de la narrativa de tres escritores del
siglo diecinueve. El resultado de su esfuerzo es una exposiciOn bien balanceada en
la que el investigador hace use constante de amplio material historiografico sin des-
cuidar el aspecto literario de su investigaciOn. De esta manera, aunque el perfil de
cada autor se basa principalmente en su producciOn literaria, la investigaciOn aborda
aspectos historiograficos que complementan la interpretaciOn de las novelas que se
analizan. Sobre dichas bases, el estudio sigue una linea cronolOgica en la que
Cortazar contextualiza muy bien obra y autor, dando al lector una vista panoramica
del entorno politico, juridico y social.
Uno de los postulados de Cortazar es que la inmediatez posterior a la Guerra de
Reforma constituye un momento en que la novela mexicana deja de ser meramente
imitaciOn de la novela histOrica europea para procurar caracteristicas y fines pro-
pios. Asi, los novelistas del liberalismo triunfante, ademas de querer representar una
realidad netamente mexicana, adquieren conciencia de su papel como forjadores de
la vision de un pais unido bajo la idea de nacionalismo liberal. De particular interes
y valor en el estudio de Cortazar es su labor de reivindicaciOn respecto de uno de
los principales apOstoles de esta vision republicana: Nicolas Pizarro Suarez. Segiin
Cortazar, Pizarro Suarez ha sido autor dejado en el olvido por los estudiosos de la
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