Marshall C. Eakin - Böcker

This comprehensive and sweeping assessment of Brazilian studies in the United States examines trends and perspectives, providing an overview of the writings by the foremost U.S. scholars of Brazil since 1945. ""The Development of Brazilian Studies in the United States"" provides an overview of Brazilian Studies in North American universities. ""Perspectives from the Disciplines"" surveys the academic disciplines that cultivate Brazilian studies: Portuguese language studies, Brazilian literature, art, music, history, anthropology, Amazonian ethnology, economics, politics, and sociology. ""Counterpoints: Brazilian Studies in Britain and France"" places the contributions of U.S. scholars in international perspective. ""Bibliographic and Reference Sources"" offers a chronology of key publications, an essay on the impact of the digital age on Brazilian sources, and a bibliography.

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. Brazil: The Once and Future Country is a fascinating read that anyone interested in Brazil will want.

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.

Empires and Explorations interweaves nineteenth-century Brazilian history, the extraordinary life of Richard Francis Burton, and the use of travel writing by historians. Burton witnessed the origins of the early processes of nation-building in Brazil including the power and influence of Great Britain on a monarchy that had ruled an independent Brazil since the 1820s laying the foundations for the physical integration of the nation, an economy based on coffee and slave labour, the construction of national myths, and very hesitant steps toward electoral, representative politics. A seasoned explorer of South Asia, the Middle East, the Americas, and Africa, Burton provided us with a panoramic view of Brazil in mid-century. He highlighted the obstacles created by region, race, class, religion, and culture in late nineteenth-century Brazil and offered his advice on how to build a nation from the perspective of an iconoclastic Victorian Englishman. Eakin follows Burton’s path and reflects on how the landscape, character, and identity of Brazil have evolved.

Empires and Explorations interweaves nineteenth-century Brazilian history, the extraordinary life of Richard Francis Burton, and the use of travel writing by historians. Burton witnessed the origins of the early processes of nation-building in Brazil including the power and influence of Great Britain on a monarchy that had ruled an independent Brazil since the 1820s laying the foundations for the physical integration of the nation, an economy based on coffee and slave labor, the construction of national myths, and very hesitant steps toward electoral, representative politics. A seasoned explorer of South Asia, the Middle East, the Americas, and Africa, Burton provided us with a panoramic view of Brazil in mid-century. He highlighted the obstacles created by region, race, class, religion, and culture in late nineteenth-century Brazil and offered his advice on how to build a nation from the perspective of an iconoclastic Victorian Englishman. Eakin follows Burton’s path and reflects on how the landscape, character, and identity of Brazil have evolved.

This book traces the rise and decline of Gilberto Freyre's vision of racial and cultural mixture (mestiçagem - or race mixing) as the defining feature of Brazilian culture in the twentieth century. Eakin traces how mestiçagem moved from a conversation among a small group of intellectuals to become the dominant feature of Brazilian national identity, demonstrating how diverse Brazilians embraced mestiçagem, via popular music, film and television, literature, soccer, and protest movements. The Freyrean vision of the unity of Brazilians built on mestiçagem begins a gradual decline in the 1980s with the emergence of an identity politics stressing racial differences and multiculturalism. The book combines intellectual history, sociological and anthropological field work, political science, and cultural studies for a wide-ranging analysis of how Brazilians - across social classes - became Brazilians.

This book traces the rise and decline of Gilberto Freyre's vision of racial and cultural mixture (mestiçagem - or race mixing) as the defining feature of Brazilian culture in the twentieth century. Eakin traces how mestiçagem moved from a conversation among a small group of intellectuals to become the dominant feature of Brazilian national identity, demonstrating how diverse Brazilians embraced mestiçagem, via popular music, film and television, literature, soccer, and protest movements. The Freyrean vision of the unity of Brazilians built on mestiçagem begins a gradual decline in the 1980s with the emergence of an identity politics stressing racial differences and multiculturalism. The book combines intellectual history, sociological and anthropological field work, political science, and cultural studies for a wide-ranging analysis of how Brazilians - across social classes - became Brazilians.