Journalist and spectacularly successful governor, Carlos Lacerda was Brazil's foremost orator in this century and its most controversial politician. He might have become president in the 1960s had not the military taken over. In the first volume, John F. W. Dulles paints a portrait of a rebellious youth, who had the willfulness of his prominent father and who crusaded for Communism before becoming its most outspoken foe. Recalling Lacerda's rallying cry, Brazil must be shaken up, Dulles traces the career of the journalist whose unsparing attacks on the men in power led authorities to imprison him and employ thugs who pummeled him physically. Lacerda's spirited oratory helped him become Brazil's most popular congressman, but it scared the rulers of Brazil, who prohibited the broadcast of his speeches after he returned from exile in 1956. Their effort to deprive him of his mandate stirred the entire nation and culminated in one of the most dramatic sessions ever held in the Chamber of Deputies.

Journalist and spectacularly successful governor, Carlos Lacerda was Brazil's foremost orator in this century and its most controversial politician. He might have become president in the 1960s had not the military taken over. In the second and final volume, Dulles explores the political and private life of Lacerda from 1960, when he became governor of Brazil's Guanabara state, until his death in 1977. Dulles focuses particularly on the years 1960 to 1968, in which Lacerda played a central role in some of the most drastic political changes that Brazil has experienced in this century.

Playwright, journalist, and spectacularly successful governor, Carlos Lacerda was Brazil's foremost orator in the 20th century and its most controversial politician. He might have become president in the 1960s had not the military taken over. In the words of eminent historian José Honório Rodrigues, "No one person influenced the Brazilian historical process as much as Carlos Lacerda from 1945 to 1968." In this volume, the first of a two-volume biography, Professor Dulles paints a portrait of a rebellious youth, who had the willfulness of his prominent father and who crusaded for Communism before becoming its most outspoken foe. Recalling Lacerda's rallying cry, "Brazil must be shaken up," Dulles traces the career of the journalist whose unsparing attacks on the men in power led authorities to imprison him and employ thugs who pummeled him physically. The story covers events in which Lacerda helped alter Brazil, such as the redemocratization in 1945 and his revelation of scandals in high places in the early 1950s. An unsuccessful attempt by government men to murder him in 1954 led to the suicide of President Getulio Vargas in 1954. Lacerda's spirited oratory helped him become Brazil's most popular congressman, but it scared the rulers of Brazil and they prohibited the broadcast of his speeches after he returned from exile in 1956. Their effort to deprive him of his mandate stirred the entire nation and culminated in one of the most dramatic sessions ever held in the Chamber of Deputies. Dulles, who knew Lacerda well and had access to his papers, sheds light on Lacerda the man, ardent in courtship and in all his undertakings, intellectually restless, and scornful of routine and mediocrity. Lacerda had a vitriolic pen that made bitter enemies, but, as disclosed in these pages, his courage and incorruptibility attracted an enthusiastic following, evident in the landslide election victories that brought him seats on Rio de Janeiro's city council and in the federal Congress.

Praised by his admirers as "one of those rare heroic figures out of Plutarch" and as "an intrepid Don Quixote," Brazilian lawyer Heráclito Fontoura Sobral Pinto (1893-1991) was the most consistently forceful opponent of dictator Getúlio Vargas. Through legal cases, activism in Catholic and lawyers' associations, newspaper polemics, and a voluminous correspondence, Sobral Pinto fought for democracy, morality, and justice, particularly for the downtrodden. This book is the first of a projected two-volume biography of Sobral Pinto. Drawing on Sobral's vast correspondence, which was not previously available to researchers, John W. F. Dulles confirms that Sobral Pinto was a true reformer, who had no equal in demonstrating courage and vehemence when facing judges, tribunals, and men in power. He traces the leading role that Sobral played in opposing the Vargas regime from 1930 to 1945 and sheds light on the personalities and activities of powerful figures in the National Security Tribunal, the police, the censorship bureau, and the Catholic Church. In addition to the many details that this volume adds to Brazilian history, it illuminates the character of a man who sacrificed professional advancement and emolument in the interest of fighting for justice and charity. Thus, it will be important reading not only for students of Brazilian history, but also for a wider audience dedicated to the crusade for human rights and political freedom and the reformers who carry on that struggle.

After a coup in 1964 that ousted Brazil’s leftist President João Goulart from power, a brutal military dictatorship took the reins of the state. As a result, elements of the persecuted Brazilian Communist Party split from a more peaceful, orthodox line and declared their intent to wage an insurgent war against the government, plunging the country into a conflagration of violence marked by cycles of urban bombings, political assassinations, institutional torture, kidnappings, and summary executions. Concrete Inferno relays this period in Brazil in a lucid narrative history, exploring what drove the military coup of 1964, the subsequent rise of the Armed Left, and the successes and failures of the insurgency and how it concluded. Stretching from the rumblings of discontent during João Goulart’s ascendancy in 1961 to the strange conclusion of the dictatorship in 1985, the book draws on new primary sources and a wealth of English- and Portuguese-language resources to provide a complete and evenhanded portrait of the conflict.

The Unpast: Elite Violence and Social Control in Brazil, 1954-2000 documents that the brutal methods used on plantations led directly to the phenomenon of Brazilian death squads.

Particularly timely in light of the recent Mexican peso crisis, Mobile Capital and Latin American Development examines the causes, consequences, and implications of the Latin American capital flight of the 1980s. It addresses the increasingly mobile and privatized nature of international capital and its power to shape economic policy in those countries. Through a comparison of the policy experiences of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela, James E. Mahon finds that those countries that suffered the most capital flight had previously faced fewer structural trade problems and had not reoriented their exchange policies to diversify exports and deal with exchange-market instability. Since the countries that stumbled worst into capital flight before the debt crisis were later among the most aggressive neoliberal reformers, Mahon discusses the ways in which overseas capital served as a kind of pressure for free-market reform. Finally, the idea that internationally mobile capital now can operate as a kind of senate&—an arm of the wealthy few, guarding the established order against the arbitrary, dangerous tendencies of the executive and popular chamber&—is examined with relation to theories of dependency and the institutionalization of democracy.

Shadows on Development: Inflation, the Public Sector, and Paying the Bills -- External Factors: Debt, Balance of Payments, Investment, and Trade -- 7 SOCIETY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS -- Workforce, Income Distribution, and Social Mobility -- Social Conditions and Problems -- Education -- Racial Factors and Race Relations -- Religion -- 8 CULTURE AND BRAZILIAN WAYS -- Cultural Traits and the Media -- The Written Word -- Music and Theater -- Cinema and Electronic Media -- Art and Architecture -- 9 BRAZIL IN THE WORLD -- From Object to Actor -- The Once-Special U.S.-Brazilian Relationship -- Brazil's Neighbors Become More Special -- Worldview and Foreign Policy Making -- Notes -- About the Book and Author -- Index