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Title: Brazil: The Once and Future Country by Marshall C. Eakin ISBN: 0-312-21445-6 Publisher: Griffin Trade Paperback Pub. Date: October, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.5 (8 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Excellent Overview
Comment: Such a pleasure to read a book by an academic. Eakin is a historian who understands Brazil. The book is not perfect, but it is solid, useful, and interesting. First, it is well-organized: before offering thematic chapters of deeper insight, Eakin provides a quick 60-page history from the fifteenth century to 1997. This is useful both for newcomers to become familiar with the Brazilian context and for others to review the legacies of colonization and peaceful independence, the strange tales of Kings Joao and Pedro, slavery and abolition, the tragi-comic Vargas, and the military regimes. Brazil has a rich and fascinating history, and Eakin does well to place its recent iterations in a long-term context.
Next come four thematic chapters on the land, people, politics, and economics, each divided into useful essays so a reader can quickly read about topics from soccer and carnaval to the convoluted political machinations of the 1980s. Broad themes underlie the discussion: the sheer magnitude of the slave trade (that dwarfed that in the U.S.) and how it shaped society, the social trends that created the most unequal distribution of wealth in the world, and the series of export products (gold, sugar, rubber, and coffee) that contributed in waves to social development.
On the other hand, readers will occasionally stumble over clunkers, particularly when comparisons are drawn with the U.S: "Much like New York City, Rio is a city whose era has passed"; "To be considered white in the United States, one cannot have any non-white ancestors"; the claim that an "estimated" 90 percent of Brazilian adults play the lottery. The economic analysis is helpful, but never profound, and there are occasional head-shakers: "In both [Brazil and the U.S.] deficit spending and foreign debt have made it difficult to marshal the resources to address fundamental social ills."
The discussion of race relations -a deeply complicated subject that Eakin navigates with some success- is thoughtful. "Brazilians discriminated, but on the basis of color, and there were many shades. North Americans discriminated on the basis of race, and there were but two"; "How is it possible to build a movement around consciousness of being black when most non-whites do not see themselves as black and do not wish to be considered black?"
As other reviewers have noted, the book is in need of a real update. Most of the research ends about 1995, although there are a few references to events as late as 1997. The decade of the 1990s has been a fascinating period for Brazilians, with the FHC administration, the Real Plan, the Argentine collapse, and the effects of globalization. A good book, in need of a some new text. It could also benefit from a few more maps and some historical photos.
Rating: 5
Summary: Great book for an initial understanding.. somewhat outdated
Comment: if it only had been more recent, it would be excellent. A shame that it was written just before the '99 crisis. Great book. The author makes a conscious effort to document the historical and economic reasons that shaped Brazil's evolution.
Rating: 4
Summary: Brazil?????
Comment: Oh yea, Brazil!!!!!!! Great for the student interested in Brazil civ.
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Title: The Brazilians by Joseph A. Page ISBN: 0201441918 Publisher: Perseus Publishing Pub. Date: September, 1996 List Price(USD): $22.50 |
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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: Afro-Brazilian Culture and Politics: Bahia, 1790s to 1990s (Latin American Realities) by Hendrik Kraay ISBN: 0765602261 Publisher: M.E.Sharpe Pub. Date: March, 1998 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Samba by Alma Guillermoprieto ISBN: 067973256X Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 30 July, 1991 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: A Concise History of Brazil by Boris Fausto ISBN: 052156526X Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 28 April, 1999 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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