When World War II erupted in 1939, Brazil seemed a world away. Lush, remote, and underdeveloped, the country and its capital of Rio de Janeiro lured international travelers seeking a respite from the drums of the war. Rio: at the end of civilization, as we know it, claimed Orson Welles as he set out for the city in 1942. But Brazil s bucolic reputation as a distant land of palm trees and pristine beaches masked a more complex realityone that the country s leaders were busily exploiting in a desperate gambit to secure Brazil s place in the modern world.
In "Brazil," acclaimed historian...