Brazil

As the most comprehensive introduction to Brazil available in English, Brazil: The Once and Future Country shows Brazil to be a land of the marvelous and the mystical, the sublime and the tragic. Marshall Eakin describes a country defined by paradoxes: immense wealth surrounded by widespread poverty, a modern industrial infrastructure alongside an outmoded agricultural system, a largely white South and a Northeastern coast that is overwhelmingly of African descent. Eakin chronicles Brazil’s development from its origins in the sixteenth century, when it was created as a by-product of European imperial expansion, to the present day. He takes the reader from the hovels of São Paolo to the pleasure palaces of Rio de Janeiro and all places in between to show the rich cultural mix that is Brazil. Brazil: The Once and Future Country is a fascinating read that anyone interested in Brazil will want. It is also the perfect book for the traveler, armchair or otherwise, interested in this endlessly fascinating country.

"Lucid introduction to Brazil by leading US historian covers history, regional differences, social relations and popular culture, political history and contemporary political institutions through 1992, and economic development. Theme of frustrated potential reflects Brazilian mood of economic and political crisis ca. 1985-93. More helpful explanation of economic and political institutions than Levine's Brazilian legacies (see item #bi 00006099#), but less detail on the popular culture that may intrigue visitors"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.

The best one-volume introduction to the history, politics and culture of Brazil.

Marshall C. Eakin is an associate professor of History at Vanderbilt University and the author of British Enterprise in Brazil: The St. John d'el Rey Mining Company and the Morro Velho Gold Mine, 1830-1960.