Brazil

Examining the complex past of Brazil, which some commentators still persist in labelling the eternal country of tomorrow (the implied corollary being ‘but never today’), is a monumental task. Laying bare the effects of that past on the present day is especially important in light of the clash of visions for its future Brazil currently faces. In this tome of correspondingly monumental size, Lilia Schwarcz and Heloisa Starling are extraordinarily adept at drawing clear links between historical events and dynamics and their relevance in the present day. From the supposedly peaceful conquest of the indigenous nations of the interior to putatively more benign practices of slavery (and enlightened motives for its abolition); from the roots of pervasive corruption and institutional fragility to the blatant farce of a racial democracy, the authors—two of Brazil's leading academic historians—set about consistently and convincingly debunking many of the historical myths, still taught in classrooms today, that underpin the comfortable existence of Brazilian elites. For example, they deconstruct Sérgio Buarque de Holanda's seminal notion of the Brazilian ‘cordial man’ (homem cordial) in a manner that outlines its concrete consequences for present-day political culture: ‘the world “cordial” ... [is] semantically linked to the Brazilian word for “heart” (coração) and to the supposition that, in Brazil, intimacy is the norm ... revealing an extraordinary lack of commitment to the idea of the public good and a clear aversion to those in power’ (p. xxi)

Democracy · Indigenous · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Sociology · History · Law · Sociology and Education in Brazil