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Title: The Brazilians by Joseph A. Page ISBN: 0-201-44191-8 Publisher: Perseus Publishing Pub. Date: September, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.24 (17 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Cry , beloved Brazil?
Comment: Brazil has certainly captured the imagination of most people around the world mainly because of its biological diversity, the carnival in Rio, and its soccer superstars. In fact, people tend to glamorize the country and its people, thinking of the sensuality and docility of Brazilians, the nice rhythyms of 'bossa nova' and 'samba', and the colorful tropical setting. There is, however, a strong, violent undercurrent in Brazilian culture, and Page's book exposes all the sources and manifestations of these in a clear way. There is violence against nature (as the despoiling of the Amazon forest and the sad case of Cubatao show); there is violence against homeless children in the streets; there is violence against women in order to 'save the honor'; there is violence against the poor in the 'favelas', mostly by neglect and drug trafficking... One wonders, by the end of the book, how Brazilians have been able to strive thus far and how they'll be able to cope with the serious challenges posed by overpopulation and poverty, among other things.
Page does a good job at trying to explain what is Brazilian by delving into the history of the country. The colonial past certainly branded the country, with its strong slavery component (slavery was abolished only in 1888 in Brazil) and almost medieval social stratification of masters and slaves or, later, peons. Page contends that many of the attitudes and dynamics generated by these have perdured, in one way or another, to this day, even in big cities. Also, Page emphasizes the influence of the many immigrant groups (Portuguese, Japanese, Italians, and Germans)and religions (Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and 'candomble' and 'umbanda') in marking the country. It is, indeed, so rich a tapestry of influences, that one sometimes feels somewhat lost in trying to grasp what is truly Brazilian.
I highly recommend this book to anybody interested in this fascinating country. Page is sometimes condescending in his exposition, but he is always interesting and provides good food for thought and discussion.
Rating: 5
Summary: Brazil: this book caught it!
Comment: Being a Brazilian myself, reading this book was like revisiting a very well known place, with the help of a different and outstanding "tourist guide". I could see my country, its history, its past and its present through highly qualified and sensitive eyes. Page's book is a brilliant analysis for a complex society. He gets exactly what is it that makes us Brazilians: diversity, multiplicity of influences, variety, lack of clear limits, lack of clear boundaries. I think Brazil is unpredictable, difficult to catch, even for people that have lived there all their lives. Page got the main traits, the most important aspects of Brazilian personality, the features that really make us Brazilians. Of course, one does not agree with everything that is written in the book. And, as a Brazilian, it is not easy to read the chapter about "the culture of brutality", for example. Also the author has some kind of "bias", probably related to the places where he lived in Brazil, towards Rio or Pernambuco (I am from Bahia, I can't help complaining...! If you read the book, you'll understand). But when my friends from other countries - usually curious and amazed about what they hear and see on the news - ask me what Brazil is, I have no doubts about where to send them to find an answer...
Rating: 1
Summary: Ideologically Colored "Brazilians"
Comment: Page provides an overview of Braziilian history and culture, but is far too free with his often economically naïve and leftish comments that add nothing whatever to the story. He seems to operate from the notion that profits equal ill, while labor is equated with virtue. One wonders how the Soviet Union, where profits were outlawed and labor (skilled and educated) was plentiful managed to force its way into the ranks of the third world over 70 years of Marxist experimentation and misery. Page's views might have been a little less out of touch had they been published 10 years before Gorbachev, when there were still some serious economists who were still ignorant of what von Mises had shown six decades before --- that in the final analysis socialism could not work because of how it distorted human incentives.
Page goes so far as to suggest that the United States may follow Brazil into economic ruin because of the market based policies that are increasing the size of the "economic pie," which necessarily increases the gap between rich and poor. Since the logical leap necessary to make such a conclusion requires the equivalent of rocket power, one can only wonder whether it instead represents an expression of the author's hope (perhaps unconscious).
Like so many of his apparent ilk, it would be better for low income households to be even poorer so long as, in exchange, the affluent are less affluent. This "hope my neighbor's barn burns down" philosophy may warm the hearts of comfortable elites who would never have to feel the pain of such policies, but would make the real poverty daily experienced by others even more desperate.
A good example of Page's gratuitous comments is on page 491. After having praised the comparative economic success of Curitiba, capital of Parana, he goes on to attribute part of it to not having "allowed itself to be overwhelmed by ... extensive, oppressive poverty." This is akin to crediting good health to not having allowed one's self to be overwhelmed by disease. Perhaps Page is not completely aware of the special conditions that have made Curitiba and its less impressive than Chamber of Commerce hyped success possible. Or perhaps, he believes that Curitiba policies would have made Sao Paulo an urban planning paradise that would have successfully repelled the inconvenient impoverished millions who have moved there from the Northeast (where hopelessness sprawls even more than in Sao Paulo).
All in all, what could have been a literary triumph deteriorates into an extensive ideological pamphlet. I am in the market for a good history of Argentina under Peron. Page's is not on my list.
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Title: The Brazil Reader: History, Culture, Politics (Latin American Readers) by Robert M. Levine, John J. Crocitti ISBN: 0822322900 Publisher: Duke Univ Pr (Trd) Pub. Date: August, 1999 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Travelers' Tales Brazil (Travelers' Tales Guides) by Annette Haddad, Scott Doggett ISBN: 1885211112 Publisher: Travelers' Tales Inc Pub. Date: February, 1997 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: How to Be a Carioca by Priscilla Ann Goslin ISBN: 8585556013 Publisher: Luso-Brazillian Books Pub. Date: 12 June, 1992 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Brazil : The Once and Future Country by Marshall C. Eakin ISBN: 0312214456 Publisher: Griffin Trade Paperback Pub. Date: 15 September, 1998 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Brazil (Culture Shock!) by Volker Poelzl ISBN: 1558686371 Publisher: Graphic Arts Center Publishing Co. Pub. Date: May, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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