Brazil: The Troubled Rise of a Global Power

by Michael Reid

Experts believe that Brazil, the world’s fifth largest country and its seventh largest economy, will be one of the most important global powers by the year 2030. Yet far more attention has been paid to the other rising behemoths Russia, India, and China. Often ignored and underappreciated, Brazil, according to renowned, award-winning journalist Michael Reid, has finally begun to live up to its potential, but faces important challenges before it becomes a nation of substantial global significance.
 
After decades of military rule, the fourth most populous democracy enjoyed effective reformist leadership that tamed inflation, opened the country up to trade, and addressed poverty and other social issues, enabling Brazil to become more of an essential participant in global affairs. But as it prepares to host the 2014 soccer World Cup and 2016 Olympics, Brazil has been rocked by mass protest. This insightful volume considers the nation’s still abundant problems—an inefficient state, widespread corruption, dysfunctional politics, and violent crime in its cities—alongside its achievements to provide a fully rounded portrait of a vibrant country about to take a commanding position on the world stage.

Genres: History, Brazil, Nonfiction, Politics, Audiobook, Economics, Cultural

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Michael Reid is a journalist, writer and commentator on Latin American and Iberian affairs. He has been a staff journalist with The Economist since 1994. His books include "Forgotten Continent: The Battle for Latin America's Soul" (2007) and "Brazil: The Troubled Rise of a Global Power" (2014).

Reviews

[Maria Espadinha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brasil, O País do Eterno (?!) Futuro


Irra, que o livro é chato!
Chato?... Com 4 estrelas?!
Parece paradoxal mas não é.
É porque se aprende!
Permitam-me que exemplifique:

"O Brasil é sem dúvida um país de superlativos, em parte devido à sua enorme dimensão. Os seus 8,5 milhões de quilómetros quadrados formam o quinto maior país do mundo em área, o equivalente à área continental dos Estados Unidos e a quase metade da América do Sul. Os 28 países da União Europeia caberiam à vontade no território brasileiro."

"Os seus 200 milhões de habitantes fazem do Brasil a quarta democracia mais populosa do mundo. Com um PIB de 2,4 mil milhões de dólares em 2012, era a sétima maior economia, a par da britânica, segundo as contas do FMI.
É o terceiro maior exportador de alimentos; irá ocupar o primeiro lugar em 2025, destronando os Estados Unidos, de acordo com uma previsão da Organização das Nações Unidas para Alimentação e Agricultura"

"Já autossuficiente em petróleo, o Brasil descobriu no fundo do Atlântico Sul algumas das maiores jazidas de petróleo do século XXI, que deverão transformá-lo num grande exportador desta matéria-prima em 2020. Mas o Brasil também é o maior produtor do mundo de combustíveis de origem vegetal: metade dos seus automóveis são movidos a álcool derivado de cana-de-açúcar."
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.
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"Em 1940, Stephan Zweig, um escritor austríaco que foi para o Rio de Janeiro para fugir aos nazis, escreveu um livro brilhante intitulado Brasil, País do Futuro. Mas rapidamente o humor popular brasileiro acrescentou o corolário «e sempre assim será», gracejo que se transformou num chavão amargo."


Pensando bem e melhor, talvez não seja assim tão chato ?!


Nota: Em português o livro intitula-se "Brasil - a esperança e a deceção"

[Lara Amro · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book in preparation for my 3 weeks trip to Brazil. I wanted to know what made this nation who they are now. What is their history, struggles, and joy that brought them to where they are today?

This book has been a fantastic journey, walking us through the history of Brazil from the natives, to Portugees colonies, to the several protests up to their current political and social history in 2016.

This was not an easy read, it is a super detailed and very well-researched book. It needs focus, concentration, and some side reading to keep up. But it was what I was looking for, and what I needed to learn about Brazil.

I finished the second half of the book upon my return, and I was very pleased to see how the Brazilians managed to dance and love life, despite it all.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was a teenager and interested in architecture as a possible career I saw a photo in Life magazine of a modernistic skyscraper in Rio de Janeiro designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer. I think that was the beginning of my interest in things Brazil. Later, and after three sabbaticals to Rio as a volunteer consultant with the Institute of Cultural Affairs (Chicago), appeal continued and now to this book. It's a history divided into two parts, first half (1550-1991) covers the periods of monarchy, republic and civilian and military dictatorships; second half (1991-2013) with the economically stabilized presidencies of Fernando Cardoso, Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff. Although by osmosis I'd acquired general knowledge of Brazil's history and culture, this book elaborates my knowledge. For anyone interested in acquiring a sense of what Brazil is all about, here is a good overall introduction. Oh, yes, on one of my Rio sojourns I made it a point to visit that Niemeyer building.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

o understand where a country is heading, you need to understand where it is, and to see that, you need to see where it came from. Michael Reid's “Brazil: The Troubled Rise of a Global Power” provides all of that information – the history, the environment & geography / geology, the natural resources, the politics – and the citizenry. AND he avoids the trap of falling into doing it in a dry, boring textbook fashion. (I admit, I DID get a little confused over the constant use of acronyms – that can be an issue with virtually ANY non-fiction book unless the reader is very familiar with the topic, and if you were that familiar with the topic, you probably wouldn't need to read the book.)

Good job, Mr. Reid.

RATING: 4 1/2 stars, rounded up to 5 stars.

DISCLOSURE: This book was provided to me free of charge in a random draw; the publishers hope for a review (and probably for a positive one) but one was NOT required for receipt of the book.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brazil is the largest country in South America, both in land and population. It has remained on the brink of greatness for centuries, overcoming many issues of geography, slavery, disease and is still struggling with poverty, education and distance. This is a comprehensive overview of where it was politically, geographically, economically and culturally and where is now.

Why I started this book: The Rio Olympics are weeks away and I picked up this book because I can't wait... and I'm a little nervous about the status of the games.

Why I finished it: Fascinating history... that leans hard on the economic side of things. But since Reid worked for The Economist for years, I should have expected that.

[Nigel Street · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent account of how Brazil came to be the nation it is today. Author dies a great job of summarizing the key historical elements that helped form Brazilian society; politics, economy and culture. The only almost inevitable flaw is that when you come to read it 4 years after it was published it is already out of date. Nonetheless it makes for a fascinating account of how many of the steps taken in the past continue to bedevil Brazil to this day.

[Omar Kashef · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great!

I recommend this book if you have a good understanding of economic language and want an economic explanation of Brazil.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Brazil, it fascinated me and captured my heart in 2002 when I first went, and has kept hold of it ever since. I have been back and will be going again as part of my 40th birthday celebrations. I still avidly try to read or listen as much as I can about it’s history and contemporary life.
Michael Reid’s book is interesting, but statistic heavy as he plots the history of South America’s biggest country. There was stuff I knew here, but a lot I didn’t, particularly around the politics and policies of Brazilian governments before and after the military dictatorship. There were also some interesting facts buried away:

By 1914, the network extended to over 16,000 miles (26,000 kilometres) – the biggest in Latin America, but a figure that the United States had surpassed in the 1850’s.

I always thought Brazil, and much of South America didn’t have much railway. Where is all this track? Where does it go?

It is the post dictatorship years that are fascinating, as successive governments have tried to battle with a bloated civil service, an unsustainable pension system, endemic corruption and massive inequality. Even when good policies were introduced, there was always graft and corruption in the background, to which the Brazilian population has wildly reacted to recently, although even then there are echoes from their own history.

In the first direct presidential election in forty years, Brazilians had thus rejected the politicians who had fought to restore democracy, and all of the main parties that had dominated political life for the previous decade. They had entrusted the country to a little-known figure replete with paradox: a scion of the north-eastern oligarchy posing as a progressive reformer, a quintessential conservative populist who promised to modernise Brazil and would indeed begin the dismantling of the corporate state.

If you love or have an interest in Brazil you will enjoy this book, it is reasonably up to date and provides a journalistic insight into this vast wonderful country, but I fear it might be slightly too academic for someone with a casual interest.
(blog review here)

[Ivo Fernandes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a great journey, it's a bit boring for being so descriptive but I think I ended knowing more about Brazil than my own country Portugal. And left me with even more to discover, Brazil is a bit like an empire, with so many different states that have completely different economies, is a country hard to analyze and understand.

It's an incredible great economy for such an economic closed country, with all kinds of import barriers, so it's not in the free trade thing, and have a little percentage of people able to speak english, that seems like an explosive combination to be out of the knowledge based economy. If many people are unable to get outside knowledge, and even the people that can, need to pay big taxes to import the goods that need to produce products, how it's possible to innovate? It's a complex question, but Brazilians not only are able to innovate in these hard conditions as they even managed to create one of the four biggest aircraft producers, along with an incredible knowledge based economy, an economy really diversified, makes me remember the incredible rise of the soviet power, against all odds and predictions...this book is full of examples of how fast Brazil needed to adapt, like how the aging process of the population that was much faster that here in europe, and left Brazil under pressure in the pension structure so much faster than the "old world", hope that Brazil adapts fast to the new challenges that are being presented to their lovely country :)

[Jonathan Griffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detailed read for people seeking to understand the social, political and economic history of Brazil.

I was particularly engaged with the opening chapters which detail the formation of the country, struggles with bandeiras etc. Later the rise and fall of a President Vargas was utterly compelling.

Towards the end the book becomes granular in its dissection of Brazil’s modern economy. Less my cup of tea but important nevertheless.

It has dated a little though. At one point the author writes “Brazil has several padlocks against” an “inward-looking, populist movement.” If they do exist, how strong those padlocks are may determine the first chapter of any sequel.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a great deal about Brazil. It rushed through the history which was fine as I’d already read a longer historical account. What I wanted was more recent history which it delivered. A little heavy on economics, made it less accessible, but felt it was necessary to explain, for example, tackling inflation which was paramount but hard to explain in layman’s terms. I particularly enjoyed the account of Brazil on the international stage and its foreign policy positions, would have liked more detail on this.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This detailed book was written in 2014, when Brazil's trajectory was perceived as more ascendant than it is six years later. It gives a concise history of the country and its leaders. Of the later ones, Cardoso comes off best, as that rare politician that sacrificed short term gains for long term ones. This book filled in and clarified a number of memories for me, as I lived in Brazil during most of the 1990s.

[Philippa Lockwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to learn more about Brazil, and this book appeared on almost all "must read" lists. It's comprehensive, containing a broad explanation of history, culture, politics, and the economy so, in that sense, it was a good starting point. There were some chapters I enjoyed more than others, and there were sections that were too heavy on some fairly dry, economy-specific topics so I skimmed through. I wouldn't classify this as a "pleasure read" but very educational none-the-less.

[Igor Mendonça · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a very nice and precise book for anyone who does not know Brazililian's history and want to know why it failed to make "the jump" after the great decade of the 2000's. But it is already outdated, since it was published just before the world cup, in 2014. So a reader would need another book to understand the most troubled years of the 2010's.

[cristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

a little too dense for me maybe I need more background Brazil knowledge

[Marijan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly written from the perspective of an economist (which makes sense since the author was a corresponded for The economist, duh) so can be bogged down by technical terms not easily understood by laymen, and the intricacies of the Brasilian political scene make for not a particularly exiting read, but I did manage to learn something about an obviously deeply complex country. It's just that I'd rather have learned more about its people than about how the country was and is governed. But that's just me.

[Susan Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book regarding a country that is expected to be one of the most important global powers by 2030. For decades under Military Rule the country is now being rocked by mass protests. This book shos the nation's abundant problems and achievements.

[James Sorensen]

I won this book as part of the Goodreads First-Read program.

[Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had a hard time finishing this. I was hoping for more about the current Olympic debacle. I'll have to wait for books to be written after the games are over.

[Arthur Ratliff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked it. At times there was too much political history. I would liked it more if there was more discussion on the cultural and land diversity.

[Erwin]

Very interesting subject, but not well written... I like reading the economist, but this was written in an even less interesting style than the magazine's dispatches... or perhaps the same style but just so much longer...

I'll look for another book about Brazil