Brazil : essays on history and politics

Published to mark his 80th birthday, this volume consists ofseven essays by Leslie Bethell on major themes in modern Brazilian history andpolitics: Brazil and Latin America; Britain and Brazil (1808-1914); The Paraguayan War (1864-70); The decline and fall of slavery(1850-1888); The long road to democracy; Populism; The failure of the Left.

The essays are new,but they draw on book chapters and journal articles published (mainly inPortuguese) and public lectures delivered in the ten years since his retirementas founding Director of the University of Oxford Centre for Brazilian Studies in2007.

In an autobiographical Introduction (Why Brazil?) ProfessorBethell describes how, from the most unlikely of backgrounds, he became ahistorian of Brazil and how he came to devote much of his long academic careerto the promotion and development of Brazilian studies in UK (and, to a lesserextent, US) universities.

Leslie Bethell is one of the few great Brazilianists,as foreign scholars of Brazil are called, of his and subsequent generations. Brazilianists engage in scholarship that has breadth and depth; illuminateBrazil as an object of study, asking the most important questions that can beasked about the country; and give voice to Brazilian experiences andperspectives.

Leslie Bethell has done these things during his long career, andhe continues to do so, as this collection of his recent essays on Brazilianhistory and politics demonstrates. AnthonyPereira, Director, Brazil Institute, King's CollegeLondon