Essays

Robert A. Packenham
Since 1964, when the military took power for the first time in the twentieth century, two impressions of Brazil have been growing in the United States.
Businessmen and State Department officials, in particular, have seen in Brazil a growing industrial juggernaut, an emerg- ing regional power, a new force in Third World politics, and the strongest pillar of stability and anti-Communism in Latin America.
On the other hand, liberal politicians, journalists, intellec- tuals, and...

People in the United States, as James Reston once pointed out, will do almost anything for Latin America except read about it. Unless there is a coup in Chile, or Seiiora Peron flees Buenos Aires, it seems the Norteamericanos are not interested. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's two trips to Latin America this year got little attention, although he was visiting an area of growing concern to U.S. business and diplomacy. One of the countries he visited was Brazil, the biggest, most powerful na- tion to the South, and no longer a "client" of Washington on the world scene.

Thomas E. Skidmore on the historiog- raphy of Brazil, U.S. readers still do not have much general knowledge of the world's fifth largest nation.
A good reading list starts with broad histories and cultural surveys, followed books on politics, race, regions, the military, and selections from Brazil's own vivid literature.
But, first, back to coffee. Its impor- tance in Brazilian history, shaping both rural society and economic growth, cannot be overstated. No work in Eng- lish matches Affonso de...

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