This book focuses on how the political, cultural, and technical networks within the field of engineering provided the space within which an important professional middle class prospered in the city of São Paulo and made lasting contributions to the development of modern Brazil.

Public and Private: Crossed Paths In the Paulista Process of Urban Consolidation * The Dynamics of Paulista Urban Institutions In the 1930s * The Making of Urban Middle-Class Employees In the 1930s * The Symbolic Construction of Paulista Urban Identity * Politics and Urban Change: The Pacaembu Scheme, 1933-1940.

This book focuses on how the political, cultural, and technical networks within the field of engineering provided the space within which an important professional middle class prospered in the city of São Paulo and made lasting contributions to the development of modern Brazil.

In The Color of Modernity, Barbara Weinstein focuses on race, gender, and regionalism in the formation of national identities in Brazil; this focus allows her to explore how uneven patterns of economic development are consolidated and understood. Organized around two principal episodes—the 1932 Constitutionalist Revolution and 1954’s IV Centenário, the quadricentennial of São Paulo’s founding—this book shows how both elites and popular sectors in São Paulo embraced a regional identity that emphasized their European origins and aptitude for modernity and progress, attributes that became—and remain—associated with “whiteness.” This racialized regionalism naturalized and reproduced regional inequalities, as São Paulo became synonymous with prosperity while Brazil’s Northeast, a region plagued by drought and poverty, came to represent backwardness and São Paulo’s racial “Other.” This view of regional difference, Weinstein argues, led to development policies that exacerbated these inequalities and impeded democratization.

São Paulo, by far the most populated state in Brazil, has an economy to rival that of Colombia or Venezuela. Its capital city is the fourth largest metropolitan area in the world. How did São Paulo, once a frontier province of little importance, become one of the most vital agricultural and industrial regions of the world? This volume explores the transformation of São Paulo through an economic lens. Francisco Vidal Luna and Herbert S. Klein provide a synthetic overview of the growth of São Paulo from 1850 to 1950, analyzing statistical data on demographics, agriculture, finance, trade, and infrastructure. Quantitative analysis of primary sources, including almanacs, censuses, newspapers, state and ministerial-level government documents, and annual government reports offers granular insight into state building, federalism, the coffee economy, early industrialization, urbanization, and demographic shifts. Luna and Klein compare São Paulo's transformation to other regions from the same period, making this an essential reference for understanding the impact of early periods of economic growth.

From the first encounters between the Portuguese and indigenous peoples in 1500 to the current political turmoil, the history of Brazil is much more complex and dynamic than the usual representations of it as the home of Carnival, soccer, the Amazon, and samba would suggest. This extensively revised and expanded second edition of the best-selling Brazil Reader dives deep into the past and present of a country marked by its geographical vastness and cultural, ethnic, and environmental diversity. Containing over one hundred selections—many of which appear in English for the first time and which range from sermons by Jesuit missionaries and poetry to political speeches and biographical portraits of famous public figures, intellectuals, and artists—this collection presents the lived experience of Brazilians from all social and economic classes, racial backgrounds, genders, and political perspectives over the past half millennium. Whether outlining the legacy of slavery, the roles of women in Brazilian public life, or the importance of political and social movements, The Brazil Reader provides an unparalleled look at Brazil’s history, culture, and politics.