Modern Brazil
A Social History

The first social history examining all aspects of Brazil's radical transition from a predominantly rural society to an urban one.

Herbert S. Klein (Author), Francisco Vidal Luna (Author)

9781108489027, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 12 March 2020

432 pages, 90 b/w illus. 3 maps 95 tables
23.4 x 15.7 x 2.7 cm, 0.71 kg

'For the past 15 years, [Herbert S. Klein] and [Francisco Vidal Luna] have co-written a series of books dealing with Brazil's economic and social history; this is the latest in that group. The book opens with an excellent discussion of the fundamentals of Brazilian economic and social reality in the 1950s and proceeds to explore the many transformations the nation has undergone since then … With a surprisingly upbeat tone, they utilize dozens of graphs and tables to convincingly argue their points … Recommended.' R. M. Delson, Choice

Herbert S. Klein and Francisco Vidal Luna present a sweeping narrative of social change in Brazil that documents its transition from a predominantly rural and illiterate society in 1950, to an overwhelmingly urban, modern, and literate society in the twenty-first century. Tracing this radical evolution reveals how industrialization created a new labor force, how demographic shifts reorganized the family and social attitudes, and how urban life emerged in what is now one of the most important industrial economies in the world. A paradigm for modern social histories, the book also examines changes in social stratification and mobility, the decline of regional disparities, education, social welfare, race, and gender. By analyzing Brazil's unprecedented political, economic, and social changes in the late twentieth and twenty-first century, the authors address an under-explored area in current scholarship and offer an invaluable resource for scholars of Latin American and Brazil.

List of maps
List of graphs
List of tables
Introduction
1. Brazil at mid-century
2. Political and economic evolution of Brazil
3. Demographic change
4. Women, family and work
5. The Welfare State and income transfers
6. Urban life in the twentieth and twenty-first century
7. Stratification and mobility
8. Race and stratification
9. Organization of civil society
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural history [HBTB], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], History of the Americas [HBJK]