The History of Brazil (Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations) |
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The History of Brazil (Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations)
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by Robert M. Levine
Sales Rank: 355181
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List Price: $19.95
$17.96
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on 8-5-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 256 pages
Published by: Palgrave Macmillan; First Edition edition October 15, 2003
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 1403962553
ISBN 13 Number: 978-1403962553
Book Dimensions:
8.3 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches
Weighs: 8.8 ounces
From Publishers Weekly
With over 3 million square miles of territory and 4,600 miles of shoreline, Brazil is the fifth largest nation in the world. In this impressively concise history, Levine, the director for the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Miami, provides a short, accessible overview of the country's complicated history and its many social contradictions. Like the other books in the Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations series (The History of Turkey, The History of Germany, etc.), this volume functions as sort of extended encyclopedia entry, which "synthesizes much of the current social literature on Brazil" while it introduces readers to the country's geography, economic and social systems, politics, history, and culture. In Levine's analysis, Brazil emerges as a country riddled with contradictions-a place where law requires all citizens over age 18 to vote, but praxis regularly undermines the country's commitment to democracy. (In the 1998 presidential election, 30% of the ballots were invalidated or reported blank.) And despite efforts by reformists, Brazilian politics continue to be dominated by a wealthy, privileged minority whose decisions maintain Brazil's status as one of the most unequal societies in the world. Even with such weighty problems, Brazil has promise, Levine suggests-it is a major recipient of foreign investment and seeks to wield greater influence internationally. With a timeline of important dates in Brazilian history, a listing of notable Brazilian personalities and an epilogue that provides direction for further reading, Levine's book is a good starting point for anyone interested in moving beyond the popular conception of Brazil as the land of Carnival and samba.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Choice
"Levine's political anaylsis of the rocky road to democracy is insightful, clear, and up-to-the-minute"
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Reader Reviews
This review is from: The History of Brazil (The Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations) (Hardcover)
This book is far more than a recitation of historical facts; it ties together the evolution of political, economic, cultural and social forces to show how Brazil came to be today. It's well worth reading; by a serious scholar, and with an excellent bibliography. However, it presents the material from a particular viewpoint that makes its coverage somewhat selective, and possibly misleading on some topics. The underlying assumption of the book is that Brazil up until the 1990's was divided into a well-to-do politically empowered elite and an impoverished and mostly illiterate underclass, with little social mobility and no political influence. This assumption is too simplistic. At least by 1960 there was a large and thriving middle class, ranging from skilled industrial workers to well-educated professionals and a great number of independent small businessmen. Although these people were generally not rich, they could lead reasonably comfortable lives, and their political influence was (and has continued to be) much greater than Levine makes clear. For example, the social unrest that led to the military 1964 coup against President Goulart was most prominent in the middle class; I can testify to that because I was there while the strikes, demonstrations and protests were becoming more and more vigorous during 1961, '62 and '63, and I saw where the impetus was coming from. A key fact that few Americans know (and even many Brazilians don't know) is that over the last 200+ years, the average rate of growth of GDP in Brazil has been higher than the average rate of growth of GDP in the United States. This is not immediately obvious, because Brazil still lags so far behind the USA in GDP per capita; it's explained by the fact that in the late 18th century the USA was already comparatively prosperous, whereas almost all Brazilians lived in abject poverty. So Brazil has been playing catchup, and has come a long ways, although still with a long way to go. Levine fails to point this out. He also writes as if the economic progress since the 1930s has only benefitted the elite, and this is just not so; much of the economic progress has been a steady enlargement of the middle class. He also fails to point out the extent to which Brazil is now competitive in the world economy. Brazil has exported hundreds of commercial aircraft to the United States; it supplies a significant fraction of US imports of pharmaceuticals; it exports machine tools to Germany; it exports automobiles to many coutries; it exports military hardware such as armored personnel carriers to a number of countries; and so on. To be sure, it also exports plenty of commodity raw materials, but the recent economic stability in the face of falling commodity prices in the world market is largely due to Brazil's high-tech exports. So, in short, this is a fine book, and I recommend it wholeheartedly, but read it with the understanding that it only gives part of the story.
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The History of Brazil (Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations)
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Updated on 8-5-2008.
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