Since Europeans first reached Brazil in 1500 it has been an unfailing source of extraordinary fascination. More than any other part of the New World it displayed both the greatest beauty and grandeur and witnessed scenes of the most terrible European ferocity. Its native people both revolutionized Europes ideas of itself and were then subject to extermination. For white settlers Brazils opportunities seemed endless, for imported black slaves it was a hell on earth.

Brazil: A Biography, written by two of Brazils leading historians and a bestseller in Brazil itself, is a remarkable attempt to...