First published in 2006. This work introduced Brazil to the English-speaking world when it was first published in 1857, and it is the best early account of the country written in English. Fletcher and Kidder were both missionaries in Brazil, K1ader living there between 1837 and 1840, and Fletcher some twenty years later. Although they were not in Brazil at the same time, they subsequently collaborated on this book, supplementing their direct experiences of the country by interviewing leading citizens, and by using material drawn from Documents of the Imperial and provincial archives of Brazil, and from Brazilian state papers. The work therefore benefits from two different viewpoints, and from a period of observation that covers some thirty years. At the time the book was written, most English readers were better acquainted with China and India than with Brazil, which in the popular mind, as the authors put it, was a land of 'mighty rivers and virgin forests, palm trees and jaguars anaconaas and alligators, diamond-mining, revolutions and earthquakes'. Fletcher and Kidder were determined to show another side of Brazil - that of a stable constitutional monarchy and growing nation, the descendants of the Portuguese holding_ I the same relative position in South America as the descendants o1 the English in North America. The portrait of Brazil and the Brazilians they present is unexpected and fascinating -an elaborate colonia1 society ruled over by an emperor with a privileged bourgeoisie and fine cities - outposts of European culture surrounded by encroaching jungle. The work is arranged in twenty-six chapters. Fletcher and Kidder begin by recounting the little-known early history of Brazil, then go on to describe the culture and customs of the country in great detail, covering everything from the government of Brazil, the marriage of Christian and heathenism, the Brazilian home, Brazilian women, the nobility and the Emperor's palace to Amazon steamers, gold mines, slavery and the Indian and African inhabitants whose descendants are among Brazil's present.­ cosmopolitan population. Accounts of travel within the country will give the authors an opportunity to describe Brazil's distinctive flora and fauna and striking natural features, a panoramic treatment complimented by charming line drawings. Tnis volume- was justifiably acclaimed on Publication, and it remains essential and enjoyable reading for a11 those interested in Brazil's past, present and future.

One of the Boston Globe’s Best Sports Books of the Year: “Incisive, heartbreaking, important and even funny” (Jeremy Schaap, New York Times–bestselling author of Cinderella Man). The people of Brazil celebrated when it was announced that they were hosting the World Cup—the world’s most-viewed athletic tournament—in 2014 and the 2016 Summer Olympics. But as the events were approaching, ordinary Brazilians were holding the country’s biggest protest marches in decades. Sports journalist Dave Zirin traveled to Brazil to find out why. In a rollicking read that travels from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro to the fabled Maracanã Stadium to the halls of power in Washington, DC, Zirin examines Brazilians’ objections to the corruption of the games they love; the toll such events take on impoverished citizens; and how taking to the streets opened up an international conversation on the culture, economics, and politics of sports. “Millions will enjoy the World Cup and Olympics, but Zirin justly reminds readers of the real human costs beyond the spectacle.” —Kirkus Reviews

The Brazilian Northeast has long been a marginalized region with a complex relationship to national identity. It is often portrayed as impoverished, backward, and rebellious, yet traditional and culturally authentic. Brazil is known for its strong national identity, but national identities do not preclude strong regional identities. In Region Out of Place, Courtney J. Campbell examines how groups within the region have asserted their identity, relevance, and uniqueness through interactions that transcend national borders. From migration to labor mobilization, from wartime dating to beauty pageants, from literacy movements to representations of banditry in film, Campbell explores how the development of regional cultural identity is a modern, internationally embedded conversation that circulated among Brazilians of every social class. Part of a region-based nationalism that reflects the anxiety that conflicting desires for modernity, progress, and cultural authenticity provoked in the twentieth century, this identity was forged by residents who continually stepped out of their expected roles, taking their region’s concerns to an international stage.

James P. Woodard's history of consumer capitalism in Brazil, today the world's fifth most populous country, is at once magisterial, intimate, and penetrating enough to serve as a history of modern Brazil itself. It tells how a new economic outlook took hold over the course of the twentieth century, a time when the United States became Brazil's most important trading partner and the tastemaker of its better-heeled citizens. In a cultural entangling with the United States, Brazilians saw Chevrolets and Fords replace horse-drawn carriages, railroads lose to a mania for cheap automobile roads, and the fabric of everyday existence rewoven as commerce reached into the deepest spheres of family life. The United States loomed large in this economic transformation, but American consumer culture was not merely imposed on Brazilians. By the seventies, many elements once thought of as American had slipped their exotic traces and become Brazilian, and this process illuminates how the culture of consumer capitalism became a more genuinely transnational and globalized phenomenon. This commercial and cultural turn is the great untold story of Brazil's twentieth century, and one key to its twenty-first.