Thinking Brazil

The books, in order

1. 1

   Philosophy · 17 min

   Ideas to Postpone the End of the World

   Ailton Krenak

   Treating rivers and forests as disposable commodities stems from the illusion that human society can exist detached from the living organism of the Earth.

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2. 2

   Economy and Society · 17 min

   The Brazilian People: The Formation and Meaning of Brazil

   Darcy Ribeiro

   Darcy calls the emptiness of the mixed-race person of the first centuries "nobodiness" (ninguendade): with no full place in the Indigenous, Portuguese, or African tradition, they had to invent an identity of their own.

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3. 3

   History · 17 min

   A Concise History of Brazil

   Boris Fausto

   The colonization of Brazil began as a commercial gamble by Portugal, not as a nation-building project, which explains why so many colonial decisions revolved around immediate profit for the crown.

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4. 4

   Economy and Society · 17 min

   Roots of Brazil

   Sérgio Buarque de Holanda

   According to Sérgio Buarque, the resistance to impersonal rules and orderly lines that many people today call the Brazilian way was not born here: it arrived in the cultural baggage of Portugal, of an Iberian Peninsula that valued the standout individual more than anonymous association among strangers.

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5. 5

   Economy and Society · 16 min

   The Masters and the Slaves: A Study in the Development of Brazilian Civilization

   Gilberto Freyre

   Brazilian food, language, and celebrations still carry a blend of Portuguese, Indigenous, and African heritage that began inside the big house.

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6. 6

   History · 17 min

   Rebellion in the Backlands

   Euclides da Cunha

   For Euclides, the geography of the Bahian backlands is not background scenery: it decides who can plant, who can move, and who can survive there.

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