Emergent Brazil comprehends Brazil’s complexity by going at it in a number of varied but interrelated ways. It is organized into six parts: Brazil, today and yesterday, combining a deft historical survey and an edgy appraisal of the street movement of 2013; it then uses specific foci to get at Brazil’s political scene; Brazil’s urban scene; Brazil’s religions in the modern world; the ongoing and potential global impact of Brazilian agriculture and Amazonia; and Brazil’s new global diplomatic role. The many anthologies about contemporary Brazil do not take on so much, because they cannot; that ... More

Emergent Brazil comprehends Brazil’s complexity by going at it in a number of varied but interrelated ways. It is organized into six parts: Brazil, today and yesterday, combining a deft historical survey and an edgy appraisal of the street movement of 2013; it then uses specific foci to get at Brazil’s political scene; Brazil’s urban scene; Brazil’s religions in the modern world; the ongoing and potential global impact of Brazilian agriculture and Amazonia; and Brazil’s new global diplomatic role. The many anthologies about contemporary Brazil do not take on so much, because they cannot; that is the unique quality of a collaboration between a Brazilian and a U.S. center unusually strong in Brazilian studies--range and years of expertise. More, this is not a celebration of Brazil, by any means; it is expert, hard-headed, critical, and deliberate, and some of the chapters are clearly designed to provoke.