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Title: The History of Brazil (Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations) by Robert M. Levine ISBN: 1-4039-6255-3 Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Pub. Date: 15 October, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (3 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Informative, but a frustrating read
Comment: As an American who recently moved to Brazil, I was glad to read a one-volume history of the country written by someone who clearly has an encyclopedic knowledge. However, although the book has fascinating and useful information, it is marred by amazingly slip-shod editing - or perhaps it would be more accurate to say by apparently no editing whatsoever. The book reads as if the author had synthesized it from his previous works and stitched it together in great haste. Thus we read that the first European colonizers "did not know what to make of the peoples they encountered. They stood in awe of the virgin forests, which seemed to be as old as the world." (p.32 in the Palgrave Macmillan paperback edition) But just two pages later we are told that "the Portuguese did not know what to make of the peoples they encountered there. They stood in awe of virgin forests." Or this: "The causes for the civilian-military coup that now overthrew still another constitutional Brazilian government had many causes." (p.123)
Reading "A History of Brazil" is like watching a good film on a faulty projector: you are glad you sat through it, but you can't forget all the annoying moments when the film skipped or went out of focus.
Rating: 4
Summary: Excellent, but with a specific outlook
Comment: 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.
Rating: 5
Summary: Very comprehensive history of Brazil
Comment: This new book is great because it is lively, emphasizes the most important issues, and shows a great deal of compassion for Brazil's people. The section on the recent past is extraordinary. It clarifies things that I, a Brazlian, did not know.
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Title: The Brazilians by Joseph A. Page ISBN: 0201441918 Publisher: Addison Wesley Publishing Company Pub. Date: 01 September, 1996 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: A Concise History of Brazil (Cambridge Concise Histories) by Boris Fausto ISBN: 052156526X Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 28 April, 1999 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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Title: Brazil: Five Centuries of Change (Latin American Histories (Paper)) by Thomas E. Skidmore ISBN: 0195058100 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 January, 1999 List Price(USD): $28.95 |
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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 University Press Pub. Date: 01 August, 1999 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado ISBN: 0380012057 Publisher: Avon Pub. Date: 01 March, 1982 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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