A Concise History of Brazil (Cambridge Concise Histories) [Paperback]

Boris Fausto (Author), Arthur Brakel (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 052156526X | ISBN-13: 978-0521565264 | Publication Date: April 28, 1999

A Concise History of Brazil covers almost 500 years of Brazilian history, from the arrival of the Portuguese in the New World to the political events that defined the transition in recent years from an authoritarian to a democratic political regime. Brazilian territorial unity and national identity were forged throughout the nineteenth century, after the proclamation of independence in 1822, resulting in a nation with one common language and wide ethnic and racial variety. Remarkable in this respect, the country nevertheless faces problems of social and ethnic disparity as well as of preservation and adequate use of its natural resources. This book emphasizes topics that have deeply influenced the historical formation of Brazil and affected its existence to the present day, such as the destruction of Indian civilizations, slavery and massive immigration throughout the last decades of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

It's no mean feat to tell the unruly story of a country as large, diverse and divided as Brazil in one volume of narrative history. But Fausto succeeds admirably in presenting facts, figures, events and influences in an orderly, palatable fashion. Expansion led the Portuguese to Brazil in 1500, when Pedro Alvares Cabral first sighted the country's coast. From the beginning, Brazil was totally dependent on slavery, first enslaving Indians and then importing Africans to work one or another of the labor-intensive aspects of the boom-or-bust economy. In 1888, slavery was reluctantly abolished under heavy pressure from Britain, which was then playing a major role in attempting to help Brazil recover from its latest financial disaster. Although people of color outnumbered whites for hundreds of years, there were no slave uprisings or effective abolitionist movements to force the issue. Brazil's independence from Portugal happened in much the same haphazard way as the country's slip into dictatorship. Sao Paulo University professor Fausto has written a nuts-and-bolts account that will serve general readers as a navigable port of entry into the history and life of one of the world's most culturally rich nations. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

A professor of political science at the University of Sao Paulo, Fausto is one of the most articulate, well-known historians of 20th-century Brazil; his numerous historical publications form an important part of the country's historiography. He recently published a college-level textbook in Portuguese on Brazilian history, and though there are differences, many sections of this English-language volume are similar to or direct translations from that book. The volume is in narrative style with a focus on traditional history, and it is valuable for introducing theoretical ideas not found in similar textbooks by non-Brazilians. Fausto's style, while somewhat simplistic, is refreshing. It has been many years since a Brazilian scholar published a textbook history of Brazil in English, and this long-overdue book will be of interest to both academic and public libraries.?Mark L. Grover, Brigham Young Univ. Lib., Provo, UT
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 362 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (April 28, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 052156526X
• ISBN-13: 978-0521565264
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #90,158 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #18 in Books > History > Americas > South America > Brazil

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Leaden., July 27, 2002

By 

richard_t "richard_t" (Overseas) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: A Concise History of Brazil (Cambridge Concise Histories) (Paperback)

This is the most comprehensive recent history of Brazil by a Brazilian to be translated into English. Its having been written by a Brazilian academic makes it a useful read for those who are also reading books by Americans (Skidmore, Eakin, etc.) But this book founders on Fausto's deep historical understanding and thorough research. There was no factoid too minute or political movement too mundane to leave out. Result: only the most tenacious reader will be able to plod through this leaden work.

Arthur Brakel's translation is mediocre, particularly in the early pages. The prose gets clunky and uses a lot of academic words oddly out of place ("insure" vice "ensure", a situation always "obtains" rather than exists). The maps are a major failure, as the first one is on page 86 and is outdated and inaccurate (failing to show either the country's capital, Brasilia, or states such as Toncatins) yet showing useless details of railway spurs. The next edition needs a dozen strong historical maps, showing the progression from colonial captaincies to modern state. Maps on the conflicts with Uruguay and Paraguay are particularly lacking.

The overabundance of detail about obscure 18th and 19th century political movements merely bogs down the reader. For despite the author's disclaimer in the Preface, this work is really is a chronological narrative only thinly based on underlying themes (such as slavery and regionalism). While Fausto claims to reject "inertia theory" of Brazilian history, the book is really a testament to those ideas. The book is not a complete failure, there are strong and detailed discussions of the coffee economy, a good (though mapless) description of the war with Paraguay, and a particularly insightful discussion of Brazil's long-term, complicated relationship with Great Britain.

The author deliberately made the arbitrary and unhelpful decision to eschew discussion of cultural themes because, he claims, they deserve their own book. Thus readers are deprived of essential material on art, sexuality, family, and sport that are integral to understanding Brazil. These themes are more usefully described in Eakin's book. Sao Paulo's "Modern Art Week", one of the crucial events in Brazil's modern history, is not mentioned even once. The author is excessively Sao Paulo-centric. Most of the text focuses on minor details of Sao Paulo's development to the exclusion of other regions.

While Fausto provides more detail, clarification, and insight than Eakin or Skidmore on many topics, such as the impact of positivism on military thinking, the book gets bogged down in dry recitiation of economic statistics without real analysis and in discussion of minor historical events without real import. It is finally defeated by its dry, uninspired prose, by a parade of chronological details and economic data that make great watershed events and minor political hiccups seem equally (un)important.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars It is concise, but also boring, and certainly not short, January 26, 2000

By 

J. Wright (Cedar Hills, UT United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Concise History of Brazil (Cambridge Concise Histories) (Paperback)

This book is concise, but reads like a dictionary definition of Brazilian history. It will have a hard time keeping your attention, even if you are compeletely unfamiliar with Brazilian history.

A much better book is Thomas Skidmore's recent book on the history of Brazil. Or, if you are looking for an understaning of the present state of things in Brazil, I would highly recommend Joseph Page's "The Brazilians."

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Concise but nevertheless satisfactorily comprehensive, September 18, 2000

By 

Leonardo Alves (Houghton, Michigan USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Concise History of Brazil (Cambridge Concise Histories) (Hardcover)

This is a very interesting book on the History of Brazil. Concise but nevertheless satisfactorily comprehensive.

Brazil is surely a unique occurrence in South America. It was colonized by the Portuguese instead of the Spaniards, it maintained and even expanded its territory while the Spanish South America was fragmented. The ethnical and cultural formation was less influenced by the original inhabitants having received a much more important contribution from Africans. The historical process in Brazil was rather bloodless with little change on the power structure. The few exceptions on Brazil's bloodless history were the violent repressions to popular upheavals that were fiercely opposed before a major national conscience could be formed. Nowadays Brazil presents a strong industry but is still very unfair on the wealth distribution.

The reasons why Brazil became what it is today are brilliantly presented in Boris Fausto book. Each major episode is analyzed on its origins and consequences making the book very well connected. Very useful demographic and economic data is presented throughout the book.

The main problems I see on the book are the lack of simple geographical background information and the writing style that is sometimes very academic and dry. The book presents at least two maps but the use of historic location names without a better explanation can sometimes cause confusion to readers that lack a basic understanding of Brazil's geography. A brief overall introduction to nowadays Brazil regions covering geographical, ethnical, cultural and economic aspects would be welcome in future editions.

Cultural aspects were deliberately ignored. That could make the book concise but it forces the reader to search elsewhere for information on this important aspect in a country's history. A few glitches can be found here and there as it usually happens in translated books, for example magnesium is reported as an important export product during the first 20th century half instead of manganese.

Overall this is a very good book, a great way to have an introduction to the history of such an important and unique country as Brazil.