Books - The Rough Guide to Brazil - page 669

NATIONAL POLITICS AND SOCIETY
Tobias Hecht At Home in the Street (Cambridge UP).
Excellent study of street children and those who deal with
them, from death squads to social workers. Based on work
in Recife, but equally applicable to any large Brazilian city.
Daniel Linger No One Home: Brazilian Selves Remade in
Japan (Stanford UP). Brazil has the largest Japanese
population outside Japan and many Brazilians move back
and forth between the two countries doing the work the
Japanese prefer to leave to others. This is a sensitive,
accessible study of their lives, problems and dreams.
Thomas Skidmore Politics in Brazil 1930-1964 ; The
Politics of Military Rule in Brazil 1964-85 (Oxford UP). The
former is the standard work on Brazilian politics from the
rise of Vargas until the 1964 military takeover. The latter
continues the story to the resumption of Brazil's shaky
democracy.

Nancy Scheper-Hughes Death Without Weeping: The
Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil (California UP). An often
shocking, ultimately depressing anthropological study of
favela women, and in particular of childbirth, motherhood
and infant death. Although over-long - judicious skipping
is in order - it is very accessible to the general reader,
interesting and often moving.

RACE
Thomas E. Skidmore Black into White: Race and
Nationality in Brazilian Thought (Duke UP). First published
in 1974, this new edition has a preface that brings the topic
up to date. A landmark in the intellectual history of
Brazilian racial ideology, examining scientific racism and
the Brazilian intellectual elite's supposed belief in
assimilation and the ideal of whitening.
France W. Twine Racism in a Racial Democracy (Rutgers
UP). Fascinating ethnography of racism in a small Brazilian
town, by a black American sociologist interested in the
differences between Brazilian and American racial politics.

HEALTH, GENDER AND SEXUALITY
Herbert Daniel and Richard Parker Sexuality, Politics
and AIDS in Brazil (Falmer Press). Excellent, clearly written
history of AIDS in Brazil, covering the way the epidemic has
developed in relation to popular culture at one end and
government policy at the other. There are bright spots -
Brazilian TV health education slots on AIDS may be the best
in the world, completely frank, and often screamingly
funny - but this topic will help you understand how this
coexisted with a scandalous lack of supervision of blood
banks.
Richard Parker Bodies, Pleasures and Passions (Beacon
Press). A provocative analysis of the erotic in Brazilian
history and popular culture. Tremendous subject matter
and some fascinating insights into sexual behaviour,
combining insider and outsider perspectives.
Daphne Patai Brazilian Women Speak: Contemporary Life
Stories (Rutgers UP). Oral testimony forms the core of this
very readable work that lets ordinary women from the
Northeast and Rio speak for themselves to describe the
struggles, constraints and hopes of their lives.

AMAZON POLITICS AND SOCIETY
Warren Dean Brazil and the Struggle for Rubber
(Cambridge UP). Good environmental history of the rubber
boom and subsequent failed attempts to set up rubber
plantations in the Amazon.
Susanna Hecht and Alexander Cockburn The Fate of
the Forest (Penguin; Verso). Excellently written and
researched, this is as good an introduction to the problem
as you will find. Very strong on Amazonian history, too -
essential to understanding what's going on, but often
ignored by Amazon commentators.
Chico Mendes and Tony Gross Fight for the Forest: Chico
Mendes in His Own Words (Latin America Bureau; Inland
Book Co). Long, moving passages from a series of
interviews the rubber-tappers' union leader gave shortly
before his assassination in 1988. Well translated and with
useful notes giving background to the issues raised.

BIRDWATCHING AND WILDLIFE
David L. Pearson and Les Beletsky Brazil: Amazon and
Pantanal - The Ecotravellers' Wildlife Guide (Academic
Press). The main body of this topic examines the regions'
ecosystems and the threats they face before moving on to
chapters discussing insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds,
mammals and fish. Richly illustrated and clearly written,

the topic will enrich any visit to the Amazon or Pantanal.
Ber van Perlo A Field Guide to the Birds of Brazil (Oxford
UP). The only single-volume field guide for birding in Brazil
that fits easily into a bag (although not a pocket); heavily
illustrated, with a special focus on Brazil's 218 endemic
species.

ARTS AND LEISURE
ARCHITECTURE
Marta Iris Montero Burle Marx: The Lyrical Landscape
(Thames & Hudson; California UP). A beautifully illustrated
book celebrating the life and work of one of the twentieth
century's foremost landscape architects, who designed

many of Brazil's prominent parks, gardens and other urban
spaces (the most famous of which are probably the flowing
mosaics alongside Copacabana and Flamengo beaches).
Styliane Philippou Oscar Niemeyer: Curves of Irreverence
(Yale UP). Good biography-cum-assessment of Niemeyer,