As the most comprehensive introduction to Brazil available in English, Brazil: The Once and Future Country shows Brazil to be a land of the marvellous and the mystical, the sublime and the tragic. 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 Sao 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 traveller, armchair or otherwise, interested in this endlessly fascinating country.
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Review:
Vanderbilt University historian Marshall C. Eakin provides an authoritative survey of Latin America's largest country. His broad and insightful overview reveals Brazil's many facets, including its racial melting pot (which often startles foreign visitors), economic challenges ("Brazil remains a rich country full of poor people"), and (in the book's most entertaining chapter) its carnival culture. Although Brazilians have plenty to worry about--rain forest depletion, a relatively high rate of HIV infection, and the most unequal distribution of wealth of any country in the world--Eakin suggests that Brazil is on the verge of entering "into the ranks of the great powers."
From the Back Cover:
This book is the most comprehensive introduction to Brazil available in English. In his quest to understand the largest country in Latin America, Eakin reveals Brazil to be a land of the marvelous and the mystical, the sublime and the tragic.
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- PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
- Publication date1999
- ISBN 10 0333753267
- ISBN 13 9780333753262
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages317
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