Brazil: A Biography

De: Lilia M. Schwarcz, Heloisa M. Starling

Narrado por: Sarah Mollo-Christensen

For many Americans, Brazil is a land of contradictions: vast natural resources and entrenched corruption; extraordinary wealth and grinding poverty; beautiful beaches and violence-torn favelas. Brazil occupies a vivid place in the American imagination, and yet it remains largely unknown.

In an extraordinary journey that spans 500 years, from European colonization to the 2016 Summer Olympics, Lilia M. Schwarcz and Heloisa M. Starling's Brazil offers a rich, dramatic history of this complex country. The authors not only reconstruct the epic story of the nation, but follow the shifting byways of food, art, and popular culture; the plights of minorities; and the ups and downs of economic cycles.

Drawing on a range of original scholarship in history, anthropology, political science, and economics, Schwarcz and Starling reveal a long process of unfinished social, political, and economic progress and struggle, a story in which the troubled legacy of the mixing of races and postcolonial political dysfunction persists to this day.

©2018 Lilia M. Schwarcz and Heloisa M. Starling (P)2019 Tantor

Comprehensive and detailed

It can be difficult to find comprehensive, modern and well written books in English about Brazil and this has to be one of the best. My only complaint is the narration. The performance is rather flat and as others have mentioned the pronunciation of any name, place or Portuguese word in general is so bad I can barley understand what she’s trying to say. It’s a mix of English and Spanish pronunciations with an occasional attempt at Portuguese. It’s extremely distracting and I wish I’d have bought the physical book instead. It would have served the book so much better if the narrator would have familiarized herself with Portuguese phonetics. It would have taken her an afternoon at most.

Very enlightening

As an American without much prior knowledge of Brazil's history, I found this book to be very informative and somewhat depressing with all of the injustices, dehumanization, violence, and rampant corruption. Unfortunately, not very much unlike our own country's history. There's seems to be more unity and sense of community among Brazil's common folk though. Furthermore, all of the slace revolts and uprisings were inspiring to hear about. Escaped slaves ran away by the thousands and took up residence in the jungles, setup collaborative and sustainable communities and defended themselves from constant organized attacks from several enemies for many years. They also raided and killed slave masters.Truly inspiring.

EXCELENTE. Comprehensive. Enlightening.

Ignore the angry white men reviewers / Portugues imperial apologists.

This is an amazing journey through the history of an amazing place.

Most of Brazil's history is troubling from the brutality of the Portuguese oppression of the indigenous and then of the enslaved people it BOUGHT to do labor. Much like the Spanish (Caribe, N and S America), French (Caribe), and British (North American), the Portuguese were too lazy to do their own manual labor and as a result used stolen labor to build their empire. Same old tired tale of human exploitation but important for adults and especially children to be educated about.

To this day, the systematic oppression that started in the 1650s in Brazil as the book details and throughout the Americas trickles down into the political and civil schemes fo the entire hemisphere. Name any country in the Americas and there's a white oppressor mind set still at work desperately cloning to the past. Bolsanaro, Trump, Desantis, Uribe, etc. While there has been progress in Brazil, Fascism never really left and now, much like the the US and Europe, the historical fascist tendencies of past have returned and those out dated ideas can't answer today's problems. The parallels between today's fascist messages and what happened on multiple occasions in Brazil's history is evident from the research shown in this title.

This book is both simply an academic timeline of what's happened in Brazil since the beginning and also a modern day wake up call that the demons of the past often were never really banished and democracies and good people must stay vigilant to evil outdate ideas that have come back repackaged but designed to stoke the fear skin color as a way to regain political power. These old ideas that circulated throughout the days of the Portuguese empire and the republics in Brazil are indeed back on the menu thanks to Bolsonero.

A lot of Republicans in the US should read a work such as this but are too small minded to every agree to study the history of the colonial era as it might "upset" them in their smug belief that America was exceptional versus participatory in the colonial evils of the 17th and 18th century that were endemic throughout the Americas.

Brava to the authors for writing something that will stand with time as a way to not forget the resilience of the mixed race inhabitants of Brazil and the journey they have lived to have some modicum of happiness from such a dark beginning.

Comprehensive and insightful

This is a book to be enjoyed by those with deeper knowledge of Brazilian history (because of the way it presents key facts and developments) as well by those that are new to the history of this fascinating country. A tour de force like no other recent book on Brazil; a classic.

A Good Starting Point

It is obviously a daunting task to convey the history of a country, especially a complex country like Brazil, in a single book. But the authors do a good job at providing at least a starting point for those interested in deepening their knowledge of Brazil. I would highly recommend it, especially to Brazilians.

I’ll end my review with this comment: in the history of civilization, very few nations have achieved a higher level of civility. The vast majority were simply mediocre societies that came and went without ever becoming fully developed nations in which the majority of its citizens would say they are happy with their country. I believe Brazil is one of these nations.

Accurate, well organized, and relevant.

A well-researched socio-historical manuscript. The authors provide a balanced view of events extending over 560 years. The brilliant connections between European affairs and colonial occupation strike a balance between detail and brevity that is hard to attain. The colonial chapters are surprisingly accurate. Accounts of colonial insurrections and resistance identify relevant highlights. The first and second republic narrative is clearly researched and well described. The real test for this work was to organize and account for the Estado Novo period and the 1964 Coup. The Vargas administration is an incredibly complex period for anyone trying to grasp Brazilian history. I empathize with listeners expressing difficulties following the narrative. IMHO this is more related to the complexity of events rather than a poorly written manuscript. Lastly, a couple of minor details...what does the length of narration time tells us about the detail of research? Can half-millennium be succinctly summarized in 1 or 2 hours? I enjoyed a book cover that moves away from the green and yellow flag or fruit basket themes...refreshing.

Very few know Brasil's history

It was refreshing to hear an unbiased, factual history of Brasil. The information is superb. I give 4 stars to the performance because being Brasilian, I found the narrator's attempts at speaking the names, places or documents in Portuguese lacking and sometimes just wrong. This, however, should not deter anyone from learning about Brasil.

Excellent, thorough, thought provoking

The writers give a careful, detailed account of the complex history of the largest nation in South America. I found it especially strong describing the colonial era, the Vargas era and the Ditadura. It might be too much of a deep dive for a beginner, but I would highly recommend this to anyone seeking to understand Brazil. The narrator was excellent too.

Eye opening and impeccably done

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and intend to begin listening to it again, right away. The provides an unflinching look at the unique often times bloody history of Brazil. The authors take their time to contrast the established narratives of Brazil to the realities of Brazilian life across the centuries. It looks at the role of race, myth and misguided governance in the making of this great country.

The book is excellent.

Christon Scott

tin ear

I'm not finished listening to the audiobook after nearly a year, despite my great interest in the topic. for those who speak Portuguese will notice that almost all proper names of persons, places, and things Brazilian are spoken by the reader not only incorrectly, but almost unrecognizable in pronunciation. this, the aberrant anglicization of the Brazilian pronunciation, makes it practically impossible to remember the names of the hundreds of people mentioned in the book. this is certainly a problem of translation and even an ethical dimension seems implied. speaks to, perhaps, the ghettoization of Brazil and Brazilian studies in the Anglophone intelligentsia. oh well, their loss. but oh, how grating on the ears. I'll have to go back to print, which only sounds as good or bad as the reader's inner monologue.