Fairness and Freedom: A History of Two Open Societies, New Zealand and the United States

Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Fischer (Washington’s Crossing) speculates about what in the differing histories and cultures of the U.S. and New Zealand explains the American emphasis on personal freedom and the Pacific nation’s elevation of equitableness to a cultural norm. As always, Fischer briskly moves through a vast amount of history as he spins his thesis that differing histories of such factors as settlement, immigration, ecology, native inhabitants, and governance explain each nation’s distinctiveness. This is comparative history at its liveliest, looking, for instance, at why Maori culture has been so much more influential in New Zealand than Native American culture in the U.S. Trouble is, Fischer assumes what he seeks to demonstrate. Also, the book is too filled with first-person stories and (typically for Fischer) overly schematic. Nor does the fact that he spent time Down Under justify his choice to compare these two nations as opposed to, say, Australia and Canada, two other nations established largely out of British roots. Thus this book is inventive while not convincing, deft while methodologically thin. Photos, 93 b&w illus., maps. (Feb.)