Pearl Of The Paraiba No More is a case study of Brazil's modernization over a thirty-year span during the mid-twentieth century. This detailed study of Barra do Pirai, a railroad junction and commercial center in the Paraiba Valley, shows that only a portion of the local population enjoyed the benefits of modernization. In particular, people from the surrounding, impoverished countryside who migrated to Barra do Pirai typically settled on hills in the city's periphery that lacked clean drinking water, sewerage systems, public schools, medical posts, and police protection. At the same time,...

Bordering all but two of South America s other nations and by far Latin America s largest country, Brazil differs linguistically, historically, and culturally from Spanish America. Its indigenous peoples share the country with descendants of Portuguese conquerors and the Africans they imported to work as slaves, along with more recent immigrants from southern Europe, Japan, the Middle East, and elsewhere. Capturing the scope of this country s rich diversity and distinction as no other book has done with more than a hundred entries from a wealth of perspectives "The Brazil Reader" offers a...