Brazil Since 1980

This is a general survey of Brazilian society, economy, and political system since 1980. It describes the basic changes occurring as Brazil was transformed from a predominantly rural and closed economy under military rule into a modern democratic, industrial and urbanized society, with an extraordinary world class commercial agriculture in the past 60 years. In this period, Brazil passed from a pre-modern high fertility and mortality society to a modern low fertility and mortality one, the economy approached hyper inflation many times, and it abandoned a policy of protected industrialization to an economy opened to world trade. The advances and the failures of these changes are examined for the impact on questions of growth and equality. The book is designed as a basic introduction to contemporary Brazil from a recent historical perspective and is one of the first such comprehensive surveys of recent Brazilian history and development in any language.

This is a general survey of Brazilian society, economy, and politics since
1980.

Foreign Affairs

The first in a new World Since 1980 series, which is designedto examine profound change in important countries over the past 25 years, Brazil Since 1980 is an instructive, fair-minded, and generally upbeat primer on the South American giant. Although the book is billed as a survey, experts will benefit from the sensible, broad perspectives of its authors, both prominent economic historians. Their Brazil is characterized by a vibrant democracy, a maturing demography approaching first World standards of high longevity and low fertility, and a technologically cutting-edge agroindustry complex that is now one of the great granaries of the world. Yet striking income inequalities have persisted, which are attributable to the legacies of slavery and racial injustice and to a bifurcated educational system where the wealthy go to private schools and high-quality public universities while the poor languish in overcrowded institutions. Surprisingly, the volume lacks a chapter on foreign policy; it would also have benefited from a fuller exploration of Brazil's place in the global economy. Alas, Cambridge University Press appears not to have committed the resources — for example, to add political cartoons, color illustrations, or innovative Internet-linked resources — to make this new series a clear market leader.

Francisco Vidal Luna is Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Sao Paulo, and the Secretary of Planning and Budget of the Municipality of Sao Paulo. He has written extensively on Brazilian economic history and the Brazilian economy, and he is coauthor, with Herbert S. Klein, of Slavery and the Economy of Sao Paulo, 1750-1850 (2003).

Herbert S. Klein is Director of the Center For Latin American Studies, Professor of History, and Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He is the author of numerous books, including The Atlantic Slave Trade (Cambridge, 1999), A Concise History of Bolivia (Cambridge, 2003), and A Population History of the United States (Cambridge, 2004).