Bandit King: Lampiao of Brazil

by Billy Jaynes Chandler

What Jesse James was to the United States, Lampião was to Brazil, and then some. With a band that at times numbered a hundred or more, this notorious bandit confronted state armies on more than equal terms and cowed political bosses, virtually dominating large sections of his native northeastern backlands during the 1920s and 1930s. Although Lampião was often brutal and merciless, his occasional acts of compassion, together with his exploits, have made him a folk figure in Brazil.

Based on contemporary news accounts, archival materials, and extensive interviews by the author, this book presents the first systematic and reliable account of the famed desperado.

Examining Lampião’s career from his boyhood in Pernambuco to his death at Angicos, Chandler sorts fact from fiction and places the bandit in the context of the backlands, where in the early part of this century becoming a cangaceiro (bandit) was as natural and attractive to the son of a tenant or small farmer as taking a degree in law or medicine was for the sons of the Recife or Salvador elite. Chandler sees Lampião and other cangaceiros as the inevitable products of a lawless society in which frontier conditions reminiscent of the American West persisted far into the twentieth century.

Genres: Brazil, History

276 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Old West of gunslingers, outlaws, scheming politicos, and ruthless land barons was not confined to the 19th century, nor was it confined to the West or even the USA. One of the most fearsome backwoods outlaws of the Western Hemisphere flourished in 20th century Brazil.

http://fireandsword.blogspot.com/2009...

[Woody Dismukes · Rating 3 out of 5]

While Chandler delivers a factual and thoroughly researched account of many of Lampião's battles and various other exploits, he ultimately fails to provide the reader with any sophisticated understanding of Lampião's personal character or his affect on the Cangaço as a social phenomenon. Preferring to stick strictly to the facts, Chandler often finds himself listing statistics rather than relating to the reader why those statistics are important thus, neglecting many of the most interesting moments in Lampião's life in favor of battle scene after battle scene. By the end of the book we have little understanding of who Lampião was and what made him into the popular folk hero he is today.