brazil: five hundred years

Bulletin of Latin American Research 19 (2000) 239}282

Review articles

Brazil: "ve hundred years

B. Fausto (1999), A Concise History of Brazil translated by Arthur Brakel, CambridueUni*ersity Press, Cambridue, 532.50 hbk, 510.95 pbk, pp. ix1362.

T. E. Skidmore (1999), Brazil: Fi*e Centuries of Chanue, Oxford Uni*ersity Press,Oxford and New York, 537.50 hbk, 516.99 pbk, pp. xi*1254.

R. M. Levine (1998), Father of the Poor? Varuas and his Era, Cambridue Uni*ersityPress, Cambridue, 535.00 hbk, 512.95 pbk, pp. x1193.

R. M. Levine and J. J. Crocitti, (Eds.) (1999), The Brazil Reader: History, Culture,Politics, Duke Uni*ersity Press, Durham, 544.00 hbk, 516.99 pbk, pp. x1527.

Brazil, by any comparative standard, is enviably well served by its historians andsocial scientists, both native and foreign. It has long enjoyed a rich, varied andinnovative historiography, drawing on the best of foreign exemplars, while its socialscientists, in common with those of other Latin American countries, notably Argen-tina, have provided new paradigms for the international social science community.

The richness of this intellectual legacy and the strength of current e!ort are re#ectedin the books under review, though many others could have held up similar mirrors,not least the excellent studies of Brazil included in Leslie Bethell's edited The Cam-bridge History of Latin America, Vols. 1}8, 10 (Cambridge, 1984}1995), which, itself, isa landmark in Brazilian and other Latin American historiography. The three princi-pal books considered here, however, have the advantage of taking a synoptic view ofBrazil since the arrival, fortuitous or otherwise, of the Portuguese, in April 1500, inwhat now is Bahia. One of the major contributions of their di!erent, but happilycomplementary, approaches is a judiciously selective, up-to-date bibliography, in whicha few, though notable and important, omissions only underline its overall strength.

Boris Fausto, at the start, makes his aims clear, namely, to write &a synthetic historyof Brazil for an English-language readership', presupposing &that there is scantfamiliarity with Brazilian history in the English-speaking world'. He frankly acknow-ledges the limitations of this approach, but succeeds in providing a comprehensiveaccount of Colonial and Imperial Brazil (1500}1889), the First Republic (1889}1930),the Vargas State (1930}1945), the Democratic Experiment (1945}1964) and theMilitary Government and the Transition to Democracy (1964}1984), pulling togetherhis conclusions in a brief Epilogue.

He is especially fortunate in his translator, Arthur Brakel, who has provideda smooth-#owing, eminently readable text, with only the rare infelicity, such as the useof &Lieutenantism' in the 1920s (p. 185), even though there is earlier reference totenentismo. It is a pity, too, that the maps, so important for the readership at which thebook is aimed, are out of date, not even showing new states created before the bookwas prepared. Why, too, are all seven plates, even of Vargas, military manoeuvres inRio de Janeiro in 1964, or popular protests in 1968, all taken from the SpecialCollections O$ce of the New York Public Library? Brazil is lavishly rich in suchmaterial, including the painting of Jean Baptiste Debret or Johann Moritz Rugendas,or the photographs of Marc Ferrez, which leap from the page to bring to life Brazil inthe late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The illustrations used here wouldalmost suggest that such material does not exist.

With such a long sweep, the work is understandably uneven, though rarely less thanadequate for its purposes. Its main strengths, as to be expected, are in the analysis ofthe nineteenth century and the Old Republic. Here, Fausto rightly stresses Brazil'spersistent authoritarian tradition, in dealing with the 1824 Constitution and thefunction of the Council of State (pp. 80, 81). He provides useful explanation of theEmperor's &moderating power', derived from Benjamin Constant's distinction be-tween executive and imperial power, which distinction was not followed in Brazilianpractice, so concentrating power in the emperor. He also stresses the confusion among&the dominant classes', a concept which, happily, he is not shy to use, in what should bethe ro( le of the state in &organising the dominant, overall interests, since to do thiswould sometimes have to sacri"ce the speci"c interests of some sector of society' (p. 86).

This reaching towards a &Bonapartist' concept of the relinquishing of some directclass control and the relative autonomy of the state is not made explicit, but Faustoturns frequently to the issues of authoritarianism and centralised state control, or, atleast, the e!ort to impose it. He does so when dealing with the regresso, when FeijoHwas replaced by ArauH jo Lima, curbing the power of the provinces. (pp. 95, 96). Herightly associates the desire to assert control, with the persistent fear of &dangerousclasses', so often heard then and since. This, in turn, is linked to the severe, violentresponse to recurring revolts, in the Cabanos War (1832}1835), the Cabanagem Warin ParaH , from 1835 to 1840, and other revolts in Bahia, Maranha8 o and Rio Grande doSul. No quarter was given and the death toll was very high, as most famouslyillustrated in the case of Canudos, in 1897, when survivors, were executed by degola,cutting their throats. In dealing with Canudos, a signi"cant omission is reference toRobert Levine's outstanding study, Vale of Tears (Berkeley, 1992), but Fausto ad-equately disposes of the myth of a political process relatively free from violence orviciousness.

The sections on social and economic history throughout the Old Republic show thedeep understanding stemming from Fausto's long research and previously publishedwork. There are good accounts of slavery and the slave trade, including the internaltrade in slaves after 1850, shifting slaves from the Northeast to the booming co!eeregions short of labour.

There is similar, detailed treatment of European immigration and of the social andeconomic impluses, which ended, "rst, the Empire, then, the Old Republic. These are

240 Book reviews / Bulletin of Latin American Research 19 (2000) 239}282

the core sections of the book, though with some surprising gaps, such as no referenceto the pioneering work of Florestan Fernandes on the integration of negroes in classsociety, The Negro in Brazilian Society (New York, 1969).

This is not to suggest any signi"cant falling away in dealing with the Vargas period,the years of civilian government to 1964 or the experience of the military-backedregime up to 1985. There is sympathetic treatment of the "rst Vargas period and thepriorities which informed it, including the pressures which led to the Estado NoL vo,while not passing over its abuses. Here, Fausto turns to the concept of &conservativemodernisation', which he initially introduced when discussing Comtean positivism as&a formula for conservative modernisation based on action from the state and on theneutralisation of traditional politicians' (p. 138). He detects the same political currentin the 1930s, with &authoritarians' believing that: &the state had the responsibility toorganise the nation and to promote an orderly economic development and generalwell-being' (p. 210). The authoritarian state would then: &put an end to social con#ict,partisan politics and excess freedom of expression* all of which only weakened thecountry.' These were sentiments to be repeated 30 years later by those, once again,impatient with Brazilian democratic politics, or &populism', as they chose to call it.

So far, so good, as an explanation of one political strand in the 1930s, but, morecontroversially, Fausto introduces the same term, &conservative modernisation', as the"rst sub-section of his chapter on the military regime imposed in 1964 (pp. 280}287).This comes after a good chapter on the period of restored parliamentary democracyand party politics from 1945, which, unfortunately, rea$rms in its title, The Demo-cratic Experiment (1945}1964), an interpretation of Brazil's politics which already hasprovoked critical reaction.&An experiment in democracy' formed part of the title of Thomas Skidmore's

path-breaking study of Brazil, published in 1967, a book which set new standards forwork in English on Brazilian politics. It was a term he used again, and evenhighlighted, as the "nal words of his other major contribution: The Politics of MilitaryRule in Brazil. 1964}1985 (New York, 1988) concluding that for Brazil: &the stakes arehigh in its new experiment with democracy' (p. 310). It is a term which he still uses inhis new book reviewed here, but, only in passing and in a di!erent context. Hesuggests that, after the Constitution of 1934, &it looked as if Brazil was "nally going tobe allowed an experiment in democracy' (p. 110).

This may suggest a change of emphasis by Skidmore, but the fact remains thatBrazilian politics, whether from 1945 to 1964 or in its renewed from since 1985, is notabout &experimenting' with democracy, as if testing it out, perhaps to replace it withsomething di!erent or better. To suggest, or even imply, this seems, at best, disrespect-ful or disparaging. In both periods, Brazilians were, and are, working to build a moreopen, more representative political system, to respond to the many, often daunting,challenges, including poverty and social inequalities, which they recognise and con-front. Nor, in particular, did 1964 represent an &experiment' which failed, so that thearmed forces and the vested interests behind them had to step in with something newor more suitable to the condition of Brazil. The coup of 1964 was a deliberatelyplanned intervention and seizure of state power by groups who could not guarantee towin o$ce through the ballot box, as the UDN's (National Democratic Union) record

Book reviews / Bulletin of Latin American Research 19 (2000) 239}282 241

showed. The intervention was not because the previous system had failed, howevermuch the golpistas and their supporters claimed, but because those seizing power haddi!erent interests and ambitions from those which the Brazilian electorate hadpreviously and persistently supported. Boris Fausto, of course, knows this, as hisaccount of the military regime and his sensitive appreciation of current issues clearlyshow: but it is a pity that he at least gives the impression of subscribing to the notionof a democratic experiment.

While Fausto's book fully succeeds in its essential purpose, it is, in one importantrespect, a disappointment. This is in its treatment of Brazil's indigenous people, aboveall in a survey of "ve hundred years of European and other foreign settlement. He isnot insensitive to the fate of the &Indians', noting that: &the word `catastrophea is themost appropriate for describing the fate of the Amerindian population' now reducedto about 270,000. But, in a chapter on Colonial Brazil of 75 pages, he devotes only oneand a half to &The Indians'. There is further passing reference to their unsuitability forslave labour, not least because of their vulnerability to imported diseases, as in thedevastating epidemics of 1562 and 1563 (p. 17). But there is no considered assessmentof indigenous people and their cultures before the arrival of the Portuguese or of thedevastating impact of contact with the Europeans: nor of any contribution whichindigenous people may have made, and still may make, to Brazilian society, to, forinstance, the conservation of biodiversity and environment and ethnobotany. There isnot even reference to John Hemming's Red Gold: the Conquest of the Brazilian Indians(London, 1960) or his Amazon Frontier: the defeat of the Brazilian Indians (London,1987).

Thomas Skidmore, in a lucid, compact account of "ve centuries of change in Brazil,starts with fuller treatment of the people whom the Portuguese "rst met, quoting Vazde Caminha and other early accounts. He also draws on Hemming and other recentstudies, but still there should be room for wider consideration of Brazil's pre-Con-quest society, including the work of scholars such as Ana Roosevelt and archaeol-ogists and anthropologists who are overturning long-held views on the relativeprimitiveness of Brazil's indigenous people, as compared to those of Central Americaand modern Mexico.

There is evidence that cultures may have spread from the Caribbean and up theAmazon, as re#ected in the "ndings in MarajoH , SantareHm and elsewhere. This shouldat least be mentioned to counter overly Eurocentric or ethnocentric evaluations of thelast "ve hundred years, as could the accounts of the earliest travellers on the Amazon,such as Orellana. He described, in the "rst European descent of the river, in 1542,vigorous communities and settlements all along the banks, well-supplied with food,including farmed turtles, and well able to o!er stout resistance, as described, forexample, in Anthony Smith's Explorers of the Amazon (London, 1990). At least a hint ofthese communities would have been a reminder of what the Europeans destroyed, aswell as of what they achieved.

In other respects, Skidmore's book is a tour de force, packed with information andscholarship lightly worn, supported by research assistants to whom he pays properand clearly well-merited tribute. There are very full bibliographical notes and anexcellent series of &Exhibits', maps and tables, providing rapid reference to key


statistics on topics such as colonial gold production, the distribution of slave popula-tion, immigration, racial composition, in#ation and the numbers and regional distri-bution of hungry persons in Brazil in 1990, those with not enough income to buy food.

The book starts with a crisp introduction of only one page and a half, which at onceopens key questions and already suggests some answers. It notes &beneath a facade ofharmony, a contradictory society', past promises of opportunity and &present realitiesof discrimination, violence and widespread poverty'. It marvels at how a relativelysmall elite has been able to defuse and de#ect popular protest. It asks about economicperformance and national identity.

The text which follows, in eight chapters, lives up to this promise. It examinescolonial Brazil, from 1500 to 1700, the crisis in the colonial system and eventualindependence, 1750 and 1830. Then follows discussion of revolts in the 19th century,the rise of co!ee and the making of &modern' Brazil, from 1870 to 1910. A "fth chapterevaluates the "rst Vargas period of 1945, followed by analysis of the years of civiliangovernment, the rule of the military and the renewed period of democratisation,marked by &New Hope, Old Problems', ending with the election of 1994 and thepolicies of the "rst Cardoso government.

Skidmore, inevitably, covers much the same ground as Fausto, but the emphasesare di!erent, sometimes o!ering healthy and challenging reminders, if not always newinformation, These include the fact that Brazil in the 18th century was the world'sbiggest gold producer (p. 21), as well as mining diamonds, having already, through itssugar economy in the northeast, provided the wealthiest region of the Americas. Thereis also room to pause in the fact that by 1830 it was the largest slave economy in theworld, with more slaves than free persons (p. 52), illustrated by an illuminating Exhibit3.3, on &Estimated slave imports into the Americas by region 1451}1870'. Drawn fromPhilip Curtin: The Atlantic Slave Trade, (Madison, 1969), this shows that British NorthAmerica imported 399,000 slaves, Spanish America, 1,552,100, and the BritishCaribbean, 1,665,000. Brazil, in the same period, imported 3,646,800.

Skidmore notes how the country in the colonial period was ruled by powerfulfamily clans, contributing to oligarchies which would persist till independence andwell after (p. 25). He stresses, too, the persistent importance of the system of landtenure and the prevalence of concentration of land ownership in large estates, whichstill bedevils e!orts at land reform and distribution. He especially notes (p. 52) the landlaw of 1850, making access to land more di$cult for small holders, contrasting thiswith the Homestead Act of 1862, with which the United States government encour-aged land grants to small farmers who promised to cultivate the land.

Skidmore, too, highlights, the various revolts and confrontations with centralgovernment in the 19th century, including the Cabanagem, with its atrocities on bothsides and imperial troops hunting down Indian and other rebels. He stresses the nowwell-documented death toll, of about 30,000 in the "ve years of con#ict, in a provincewith an estimated population, before the war, of about 150,000. Like Fausto andothers, he remarks that the slaughter &stands as further contradiction to the claim ofBrazilians and others that Brazil has been blessed with a non-violent past' (p. 45).

In similar vein, he records the regular reference to &dangerous classes' to describe themass of the poor, including those such as street peddlers, washerwomen, messenger


boys, prostitutes, and vagrant handymen who made up the urban formal sector in theearly stages of urbanisation and industrialisation. They were generally perceived bypoliticians and journalists as dangerous rather than deserving, always ready to revoltand, as such, fair targets for police repression and receiving little mercy from the courtsystem (p. 86). This, as Skidmore underlines, is a theme which persists, when towardsthe end of the book he considers the widening gap between rich and poor, growinginequalities, rising crime and violence. This includes the murder of street children bypolicemen, paid by those to whom the children pose a threat, or even a nuisance, andof landless peasants in Amazonia (p. 230).

Skidmore returns frequently to the &Brazilian elite's fear of social revolution'(p. 185), which, sometimes, as in the turn towards political reopening, was &overtakenin their desire to return to the democratic world'. The analysis of economic perfor-mance, and often of its failure, and of deep-seated social tensions springing fromworsening relative inequality provides some of the best material in the book. He nowacknowledges, for example, which was not a theme stressed in his earlier work, that,by 1981, Brazil, once again, &was in economic crisis* one that could not be blamedon populists, leftists or democratic rule' (p. 159). He asks who got the income andwealth generated by the 1970s, showing (p. 182 Exhibit 7.4) that every income groupimproved its absolute level during the 1990s, as defenders of the regime resolutelyclaimed, but that the relative distribution had worsened.

There is a similarly useful discussion of the debt crisis, especially after 1982, and thedrop in real investment, both public and private, as well as the serious brain draincaused by the out-migration of Brazilians, a new phenomenon, as Brazil, by interna-tional comparison, became &a conspicuous underperformer' (pp. 194}198). This leadsinto further re#ection on the widening gap between rich and poor, the question ofunemployment, of crime and kidnappings, of street children murdered by poliD caMilitar (Military Police), as outside Rio's CandelaH ria church in July 1993, and relatedissues of education, health and housing (pp. 198}200). Skidmore also draws on hisearlier work on race relations, and on new research, for balanced assessment of racialdiscrimination and measures to address it.

Perhaps, in part, because of the valuable contribution from able research helpers,this book touches on a broad spectrum of issues revealing the nature of modern andcontemporary Brazil, including aspects of its culture, from music to cinema andtelevision. The political analysis, building on past achievement, is deft and con"dent,well supported by documentation and reference. Yet, one thing, arguably, mars thevaluable contribution in this area. It is not, now, talk of an &experiment in democracy',but what, to some observers must seem like a conceptual hang-up or blind-spot,reaching back to Skidmore's "rst extended interpretation of Brazilian politics andevents leading to the coup of 1964.

This, once again, relates to Vargas and the Vargista tradition, including politiciansassociated with or close to him, such a Goulart, Brizola, or Miguel Arraes, part ofwhat San Tiago Dantas once called the &negative', as distinct from the &positive' left,a distinction seized upon by Skidmore and referred to again here (p. 153). He is, in themain, more sympathetic than previously to both Vargas and Goulart: to Vargas whendiscussing his oil policies and new economic strategy in his government of the early


1950s (p. 134), and to Goulart, over his proposed 100% increase in the minimumwage, as Minister of Labour in 1954. Skidmore now, at least, concedes that &put in theproper perspective, Goulart's recommendation was not patently absurd', being stillfar short of many prevailing industrial wage rates (p. 136).

Where, however, Skidmore remains unchanged is in his use of &populism' and&populist' to describe Vargas, Goulart, and those associated with them. He describesthe PTB (Brazilian Labour Party) in 1945 as &the electoral arm of his [Vargas']populist strategy' (pp. 131}133). He o!ers a rare de"nition, not of &populism', but of&the populist style in politics' when referring to Adhemar de Barros, governor of Sa8 oPaulo: &(meaning, an appeal to urban voters based on public works, social welfarebene"ts and an e$cient voting machine.)' (p. 133).

Such a de"nition could apply to many politicians not usually stigmatised as&populist', but it is constantly used here, without further re"nement, as a pejorativeterm for the &negative' and, sometimes, the &nationalist' left. Goulart's succession to thepresidency, on the resignation of Quadros: &alarmed the UDN and the military, whoconsidered him a dangerous populist all too ready to accommodate the Communistsand thereby help them to power' (p. 151). This perception on the right then becomesaccepted, when Skidmore immediately describes the succession of Goulart as: &arepeat of the confrontation of 1954* a populist president, this time with an unstablepolitical base and limited parliamentary powers, versus the military' (p. 152). Thenfollows a whole section: &Populists versus the Military'.

Later, discussing the victory of the PSD (Social Democratic Party) candidates in thestate elections in 1965, which provoked, or occasioned, Institutional Act No. 2,dissolving the party system, Skidmore remarks that: &Although both winners hadreputations as wheeler-dealers, neither was a full-#edged populist' (p. 163). Dealingwith events more than 20 years later, in the Constitution of 1988, he argues that: &muchof its content represented a victory for populist ideas as against many of the principlesadvocated by the military government' (p. 190), a strange contrast of &ideas' and&principles'. He adds that: &The populists failed in their attempt to include a strongagrarian reform provision', being defeated by &conservative congressmen' and, as henotes, a powerful agrarian lobby, the UDR (Democratic Union of Landed Interests).

But these &populists' wanting agrarian, as well as other, reforms, included socialistsand idealists, such as Florestan Fernandes of the PT (Worker's Party) and many othersocialists and men and women on the left who would vehemently have denied thecharge of being &populist', with its overtones of indulging in empty rhetoric andunscrupulous political manipulation. For those who followed closely the debates inthe Constituent Assembly, &populism' was the least useful term for understanding theissues at stake. Corruption and intimidation, by the Sarney government and on theright, were far better guides.&Populism' is not a heuristic concept. It was allegedly thought up in relation to

Latin America, speci"cally Peronism, for a Chatham House conference in 1965, byTorcuato di Tella, appropriating it from the vocabulary of Russian 19th centuryhistoriography, where it had meaning when applied to the &narodniki'. It has confusedand muddied discussion of Latin American politics ever since. One could only wishthat Skidmore could "nd other concepts or categories to understand the reformist and


nationalist Brazilian left, abused by both right-wing enemies and even some within itsown camp. This is the only major failing in an otherwise excellent account of Brazil.

Robert Levine's overview of 500 years comes not from only one di!erent perspect-ive, but, characteristically, from many and all at once. For over 30 years, Levine hasbrought to his writing on Brazil scholarship "red by imagination and by a palpableenjoyment of all things Brazilian. His work ranges from an early study of the Vargasregime to a history of Pernambuco from 1889 to 1937, to a vivid account of Canudos,mentioned already, to writing on football and Brazilian photographic sources, toa recent biography of Vargas and a new Reader on Brazil.

In all fairness, it has to be said that Levine, too, resorts to the term &populism' indiscussing Vargas and his associates in his biographical study. He speaks of the&aggressively populist stance' of AgamenoH n Magalha8 es in Pernambuco during theEstado No( vo (pp. 57, 58) and has a whole chapter, Populism, Vargas Style, 1945}1954(pp. 75}96). His bibliography contains references to other studies of &populist' politics.Levine does, however, explain what he understands by &populism', acknowledging itsuse &to characterise a wide variety of political styles' (p. 7). He ascribes to it &sharedqualities of being urban based, multiclass coalitional, hierarchical, co-optive, ad hoc,and non-revolutionary, led by ebullient (if not charismatic) "gures who promised toredress popular grievances and to build social solidarity'. He adds (p. 8) that &populistpolitical movements are nationalistic in character but often have no consistentideology or agenda; rather, they adopt a range of issues to "t the needs of thetimes2'.

Such all-embracing de"nitions can be applied as and how one wishes, beingmalleable enough to suit most purposes. Here it is su$cient to note that everythingLevine says in his admirably succinct, yet densely packed, study of Vargas and his eracould equally well have been said without any recourse to such a slack, catch-all term.It must also be said that Levine does not use the label pejoratively as an all-embracing&boo-word'.

The &Vargas Era' forms Part IV (pp. 149}224) of the nine parts in The Brazil Reader,edited by Levine and John J. Crocitte. In the introduction to this section, Vargas isdescribed, in Antonio Gramsci's phrase, as a &passive revolutionary from above' and,as in the rest of the book, the sharply pointed introduction leads to a series of excerptsand readings, with photographic support, which allow the reader to browse, to pickand choose and to catch some of the taste and zeitgeist of the period under focus.Readings on Vargas include a passage from the Platform of the Liberal Alliance, theelectoral movement headed by Vargas in 1930, dealing, here with the social question.There is a 1930 statement from LumH s Carlos Prestes, material to illustrate the power ofregional resentment in Sa8 o Paulo in 1932, other statements from Communist revol-utionaries, anti-semitic diatribe from Gustavo Barroso (not typical of most Inte-gralists), an apologia for the Estado NoL vo and, among other things, a speech fromVargas on New Year's Day, 1938.

This section is typical of all nine, designed to whet the appetite and quicken theimagination, as well as to inform. It follows the pattern of the Peru Reader, crossingdisciplinary boundaries, seeking di!erent points of entry into Brazilian reality, seekingto &probe beneath the surface of the stereotype', as a collection with helpful pointers, to


include &history from below' as well as &history from above' and other, more lateral,cross-cuts.

Five parts follow chronologically from pre-Conquest society to the return todemocracy, and there are four thematic sections, mostly on contemporary topics.There is a good deal of overlap, and none the worse for that. The pre-Conquest sectiono!ers a glimpse into the society which preceded Portuguese discovery, some of theculture and practices of which long survived that impact. The Brazil Reader allowsindigenous voices to be heard, in the form of a CayapoH legend, as well as JohnHemming's account of the "rst contact, and an anonymous description of theTupinambaH . There is a piece from the late Warren Dean, and a powerful attack by theJesuit, Antonio Vieira, on the abuse and enslavement of Indians.

Other sections cover Imperial and Republican Brazil, Slavery, Seeking Democracyand Equity, Women's Lives, Race and Ethnic Relations, and a further two, entitledRealities and Saudades. Some of the extracts are very moving, such as the piece onCanudos. Some are disturbing, like the account of Pixote's fate. Some are challenging,as Roberto DaMatta's question as to whether Brazil is hopelessly corrupt. Some o!ertongue in cheek guidance to how Brazil works, including Levine's explanation ofjeitinho. None of the readings is irrelevant or without purpose. Most tease andprovoke, urging the reader to search for more and read on. As an introduction to "vehundred years of history, that is no mean achievement.

Peter FlynnDepartment of Sociology, University of Glasgow,

Glasgow, UK

0261-3050/00/$20.00 ( 2000 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.PII: S 0 2 6 1 - 3 0 5 0 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 0 8 3 - 2

Brazil: Samba and society

Hanchard, Michael George (1998), Orpheus and Power: The Movimento Negroof Rio de Janeiro and SaJ o Paulo, Brazil, 1945+1988, Princeton Uni*ersity Press(Princeton, New Jersey). x1203 pp., 513.95 pbk.

Shaw, Lisa (1999), The Social History of the Brazilian Samba, Ashuate (Aldershot,Brookfield). x1211 pp., 537.50 hbk.

Vianna, Hermano (1999), The Mystery of Samba: Popular Music and NationalIdentity in Brazil, The Uni*ersity of North Carolina Press (Chapel Hill and London).xx1147 pp., US$34.95 hbk, US$15.95 pbk.

Sansone, L12 vio and dos Santos, JoceH lio Teles (eds.) (1998), Ritmos em TraL nsito:So& cio-Antropolouia da Mu& sica Baiana, Dynamis (SaJ o Paulo). 240 pp.

It is nearly 70 years since Gilberto Freyre "rst devised his mythology of mestic7 onationalism, de"ning Brazil as a unique &racial democracy' destined to absorb all


brazil: five hundred years

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