Baer's text on the Brazilian economy has been revised and expanded to incorporate new scholarship and events that have occurred since the publication of the previous edition. In addition to updating the historical chapters based on information gleaned from current research, Baer has added new discussions on the growth of the Brazilian debt crisis, the resurgence of inflation in the 1980s, the ill-fated Cruzado Plan, and changes in the industrial structure of the country.

Study of economic recession and the external debt crisis in Brazil - describes general economic conditions and the impossibility of debt repayment; questions the rationality of IMF economic policies and shows how a sovereign state can renegotiate a financial agreement, regain its freedom of action and eliminate inflation; includes a chronology of historical and political events. Graphs.

This is the first complete economic and social history of Brazil in the modern period in any language. It provides a detailed analysis of the evolution of the Brazilian society and economy from the end of the empire in 1889 to the present day. The authors elucidate the basic trends that have defined modern Brazilian society and economy. In this period Brazil moved from being a mostly rural traditional agriculture society with only light industry and low levels of human capital to a modern literate and industrial nation. It has also transformed itself into one of the world's most important agricultural exporters. How and why this occurred is explained in this important survey.