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

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 The maps are a major failure, as the first one is on page 86 and is outdated and inaccurate (failing to show either the country's capital, Brasilia, or states such as Toncatins) yet showing useless details of railway spurs.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.

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."

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.