Brazil: Five Centuries of Change

I bought this book to prepare me for a move from the States to Brasil. A Brazilian friend responded immediately to the mention of the author's name, saying that he's one of the most respected non-Brazilian historians of Brazilian history. He also said that the complaints given by other reviewers on this site were reflecting the Historical Revisionist camp. So regardless of one's position, Skidmore's book gives an excellent representation of the traditional historical view of Brazilian history. I'm about halfway through it at this point, and I can say that it is very readable, very interesting, quite blunt and realistic about the suffering of slaves and native Brazilians, nevertheless does not stand on a soapbox, and I'm quite inspired by the understanding of the Brazilian spirit that I'm getting.

I just completed the last semester of my MBA at Fundacao Getulio Vargas in Sao Paulo and this was the best book of all my materials for my Brazilian history class -- in English or Portuguese! It is comprehensive, entertaining and an easy read all at the same time. He also had the respect of my very critical Brazilian prof!

Of the three short (one-volume) histories of Brazil I've read recently, I consider this the best. Although I agree with Leonardo Alves that the early history is treated too briefly and with minor errors, the book is quite good on the modern history of Brazil. I have one minor criticism, and a wish.Prof. Skidmore uses the words "left" and "right" regularly to describe the political orientation of important individuals and groups in Brazil. I found this confusing and misleading, until I realiized that I could get a coherent view by replacing "left" by "reformist" and "right" by "conservative" wherever they occur. The problem is that although "left" and "right" are a useful classification in some countries, they do not fit Brazil. For example, Cardoso is frequently considered to be a former leftist who has become a centrist liberal, but this is misleading. Cardoso has consistently been a reformer, wanting to make major changes in the political and economic structure of Brazil, and his only shifts have been tactical; his values and underlying views have not changed. Similarly, it's very confusing to try to classify Goulart and his supporters into "left" and "right." Goulart himself would have been considered a rightist in Europe; he wanted to return to the policies of Vargas; most of his supporters would have been considered "leftists" in Europe. To understand what happened during Goulart's presidency and why it was ended by a military coup, it's more useful to think of Goulart and all his supporters as "reformist" and the Army leadership as "conservative." I recommend that other readers mentally substitute "reformist" for "left" and "conservative" for "right" when reading Skidmore's book.My wish and hope is that some day soon a capable historian will write a longer and more comprehensive history of Brazil in English. Brazil is nearly as large as the USA and has nearly as many people; it has been settled by Europeans longer than the USA, and its culture throughout its history has been extremely diverse. It is just plain impossible to do justice to the history of Brazil in a short (250 or 300 pages) book; I think it would take something with two or three times as much material. Brazil is becoming more important in world affairs than most people in the USA realize, and it would be good to have a thorough text on Brazil's history in English.

As a former GWU gradute student of Latin American studies, I had read quite a few legnthy, scholarly books on Brazilian history and culture, many of which presupposed the reader have some knowledge of Brazil. In my opinion, what makes Skidmore's book so outstanding is that it is both a thorough summary of 500 years of Brazilian history and culture and is easy enough to read so that readeres with no prior knowledge of Brazilian history and culture will get a good background for this very important but little understood giant of Latin America. I highly recommend it for anyone planning to visit Brazil who wants a good, concise background on this diverse nation.

Skidmore has been writing about Brazilian history for several decades now and is one of the top American authorities on the subject. This is a fascinating look at five centuries in a fascinating country. It unfortunately doesn't have enough information on Brazilian music (which is a vital part of the culture), but for that there are books like "The Brazilian Sound."