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Disputed Pasts
Forgetting and Remembering the Dictatorship in Brazil
Cristina Buarque de Hollanda (Author), José Szwako (Author)
9781477334072, University of Texas Press
Hardback, published 14 July 2026
256 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm, 0.595 kg
"Beautifully written in engaging fast-paced prose, this in-depth study of the fight for truth and justice in the aftermath of Brazil's military regime is mandatory reading for anyone interested in the human rights movement and its impact on contemporary Brazilian society. Based on oral histories and a careful reading of multiple sources, Disputed Pasts offers a sophisticated analysis about how civil society, government bureaucrats, international institutions, and other allies persisted in promoting a set of memories related to the dictatorship that faced constant pushback from defenders of the military regime, who first insisted on forgetting the nation's recent past and then attempted to officialize their own version of the country's history." - James N. Greene, Brown University, coauthor of the third edition of Brazil: Five Centuries of Change
"Emancipation can come through memory if the past becomes a counterexample to transcend. But memory can also haunt, when it is a source of longing, nostalgia, and revival. The afterlives of Brazil's twenty-year dictatorship have served diverse kinds of actors and different visions of politics, and this superb reconstruction is an excellent guide to their ambiguous deployments." - Samuel Moyn, Yale University, author of Liberalism against Itself: Cold War Intellectuals and the Making of Our Times
How the memory of military dictatorship shapes Brazil's political divides and the far-right's rise. Brazil's military dictatorship ended in 1985, but its history still looms large over the country. Since the restoration of democracy, national politics have been shaped by heated contestation over the dictatorship's legacy. Cristina Buarque de Hollanda and José Szwako examine how the state, the military, and civil society have variously mourned, celebrated, and suppressed memories of Brazil's violent past—and to what ends. As the dictatorship faltered under pressure from the opposition in the streets and in Congress, popular opinion favored democracy, which often meant forgetting. Today, the Brazilian left contends that the past has been silenced, paving the way for Jair Bolsonaro and the far right. Yet the past has been intensely contested: media outlets, social movements, and official commissions have long documented the dictatorship and spurred reparations. Disputed Pasts argues that the conservative ascendency is a reaction to these efforts of remembrance. The right seeks to rehabilitate the violent past by discrediting victims and elevating the dictatorship's anti-communist ideology. Far from forgetting the past, Bolsonaro and Bolsonarismo actively remember and celebrate it.
Mean-Spirited”
Amnesty and Platforms of Forgetting