Understanding Comes First

The Spring Time of Freedom: The Evolution of Developing Societies
by William McCord
Oxford University Press, 1965, 330 pp., $6.00

Favelados, the slum dwellers in Sao Paulo’s shantytowns, are the subject of a moving autobiography, Child of
the Dark, by Carolina de Jesus. In a book which—as university press books go—is no less moving, Professor McCord argues that to help the favelados, we must not merely urge our financial aid and political advice on them, but first must make an effort to understand them and respect their institutions and traditions. All too many Western “liberals” are content to declare that these natives cannot be trusted to find their own road to salvation but must be guide by strong dictators who, moreover, should be thoroughly imbued with the “Western” spirit of efficiency. Besides, these Western apologists for Nasse...