El autor realiza en esta obra un profundo estudio sobre la aventura de vivir en un pais en desarrollo como Brasil, en el ámbito económico y político, dibujado como como prometedor por sus políticos pero soportado con sufrimiento por los brasileños desde la Colonia hasta la "Nueva República". Escrito en dos momentos, uno en 1972 y otro en 1976, y actualizado posteriormente, el libro es reultado de la historia ideológica de Brasil, siempre expresada como desarrollada y en creciente evolución económica, política, social, y que en realidad nunca consiguió dar un soporte de bienestar para su pueblo. Aunque escrito en el auge del llamado "milagro brasileño" y en el auge de la dictadura militar, el autor conseguía ya en esos momentos entender como el pueblo brasileño era engañado en las estadísticas sobre el producto nacional de crecimiento entre otras otras manipuladas por los gobiernos en los últimos 15 años. Siendo así, el libro plantea cuestiones como la formación colonial, la modernización y la crisis de la economía agroexportadora; la crisis de la industrialización, la dictadura mulitar como respuesta conservadora, la crisis del "milagro brasileño", la apertura política, la transición democrática; la crisis de la Nueva República, de Tancredo a Fernando Henrique. Es una obra decisiva para que el lector entienda mejor a Brasil.

Since 1943, the lives of Brazilian working people and their employers have been governed by the Consolidation of Labor Laws (CLT). Seen as the end of an exclusively repressive approach, the CLT was long hailed as one of the world's most advanced bodies of social legislation. In Drowning in Laws, John D. French examines the juridical origins of the CLT and the role it played in the cultural and political formation of the Brazilian working class. Focusing on the relatively open political era known as the Populist Republic of 1945 to 1964, French illustrates the glaring contrast between the generosity of the CLT's legal promises and the meager justice meted out in workplaces, government ministries, and labor courts. He argues that the law, from the outset, was more an ideal than a set of enforceable regulations--there was no intention on the part of leaders and bureaucrats to actually practice what was promised, yet workers seized on the CLT's utopian premises while attacking its systemic flaws. In the end, French says, the labor laws became "real" in the workplace only to the extent that workers struggled to turn the imaginary ideal into reality.

In creating and developing the new genre of the televised novela, a one-hour long dramatic serial, the Brazilian television industry grew, in less than 15 years, from an insignificant player in the international market to one of the largest, most influential in the world. In the first book in English to explore the phenomenon of the telenovela Michele and Armand Mattelart challenge accepted views of the world dominance of United States television and probe the socioeconomic impact of this new genre on a third world country. Using the telenovela and its impact on the medium world-wide, the authors document the important changes in the international circulation of television programs and in the way television is perceived theoretically as a subject of research. The book traces the development of the novela in a country that, in the early 1960s, did not have any nationwide media and later--from 1964 to the 1970s--was ruled by a military dictatorship. It further analyzes the formation of the genre and its mode of production, placing the novela's appearance and development in its cultural, institutional, and economic context. The authors look at the peculiar contradictory relation between the genre's creators and developers--generally left wing intellectuals--and the manipulations required to construct a television industry in a highly competitive marketplace. The book begins with a description of the economic, institutional, and cultural context which produced the genre. It explores the world of soap operas, the development of a national television industry, and the beginnings of an urban consumer society in Brazil. The authors include a valuable and detailed study of the mode of production of the telenovela, placing both the form and content of the genre in their specific economic and institutional context. The book goes on to examine the relationship between the genre and its wider social and cultural environment, explaining its immense popularity and the social function it fulfills. Finally, the authors link the study of Brazilian television to wider debates in media and cultural studies.

In Dependency, Neoliberalism and Globalization in Latin America, Carlos Eduardo Martins manages the difficult task of updating theories on all three key concepts, enabling their fresh application towards a critical comprehension of societies, especially those in the periphery. En Globalización, dependencia y neoliberalismo en América Latina, Carlos Eduardo Martins cumple la difícil tarea de actualizar las teorías sobre esos tres conceptos clave para el pensamiento contemporáneo y la comprensión de las sociedades, principalmente las periféricas.