A Unique Perspective, Generally Interesting

books:


	• The Brazil Reader: History, Culture, Politics (The Latin America Readers) Duke University Press, 1999 - 527 pages average customer review:based on 8 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The Brazil Reader

I'm a capoeira instructor living in the United States. I wish all of my students would read this collection. It's a great introduction to the history, culture, and politics of Brazil. So much of life in Brazil is so different from life in the United States. So much of that difference is because of the history of each country.

This book starts at the beginning with discovery and the start of the slave trade. It continues through to modern history and politics of the country.

This book is money and time well spent.

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Primary Sources

An excellent collection of primary sources from Brazilian history. It strangely skips entire decades and periods which is its only shortcoming.

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A Unique Perspective, Generally Interesting

This book is a collection of short essays on Brazil. I found at least half to be quite interesting, though I probably skimmed about a quarter of them. Many of the essays frequently give a first hand account of life as a small farmer, favela resident or fisherman in Brazil. These essays capture and explain to the English reader the hopes, values and experiences of actual Brazilians. Most English readers gain their understanding of Brazil only second hand through academics or journalists. This book offers a fresh, reality based perspective on Brazil for English readers who haven't learned about Brazil outside of academia, the New York Times, or the beaches of Rio.

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Short Pieces for Fun Reading

From exerpts of historical claims to letters from diplomats, from essays on slavery to descriptions of food, this book gives insights on the spirit and history of Brazil in easy to read snippets. A picture of a people emerges from original sources and non-academic evaluations that adds debth to what you will see when you go there.

I wish this book was in Portuguese

I brought this book in Los Angeles on the way back from a trip to Disney with my children. I finished it almost when I arrived home. The book has great insight and should be read by Brazilians, because it presents things as they are, not as they are supposed to be. Maybe the book will be públished in Brazil some day. I hope so.

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reviews: page 1, 2

Bordering all but two of South America?s other nations and by far Latin America?s largest country, Brazil differs linguistically, historically, and culturally from Spanish America. Its indigenous peoples share the country with descendants of Portuguese conquerors and the Africans they imported to work as slaves, along with more recent immigrants from southern Europe, Japan, the Middle East, and elsewhere. Capturing the scope of this country?s rich diversity and distinction as no other book has done?with over a hundred entries from a wealth of perspectives?The Brazil Reader offers a fascinating guide to Brazilian life, culture, and history.
Complementing traditional views with fresh ones, The Brazil Reader?s historical selections range from early colonization to the present day, with sections on imperial and republican Brazil, the days of slavery, the Vargas years, and the more recent return to democracy. They include letters, photographs, interviews, legal documents, visual art, music, poetry, fiction, reminiscences, and scholarly analyses. They also include observations by ordinary residents, both urban and rural, as well as foreign visitors and experts on Brazil. Probing beneath the surface of Brazilian reality?past and present?The Reader looks at social behavior, women?s lives, architecture, literature, sexuality, popular culture, and strategies for coping with the travails of life in a country where the affluent live in walled compounds to separate themselves from the millions of Brazilians hard-pressed to find food and shelter. Contributing to a full geographic account?from the Amazon to the Northeast and the Central-South?of this country?s singular multiplicity, many pieces have been written expressly for this volume or were translated for it, having never previously been published in English.
This second book in The Latin America Readers series will interest students, specialists, travelers for both business and leisure, and those desiring an in-depth introduction to Brazilian life and culture.

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