Brazil: Essays on History and Politics

Leslie Bethell is the most respected scholar of Brazil of his generation. This has been recognized in Brazil by being made a corresponding fellow of both the Brazilian Academy of Letters and of Sciences. Perhaps best known for his book The Abolition of the Brazilian Slave Trade (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970), Leslie Bethell’s scholarship has ranged widely not least in his editorship of the 12-volume Cambridge History of Latin America (1984-2008). In recent years he has continued to research the modern history of Brazil, much of which he has presented in invited lectures and Brazilian journals and remained unpublished in English until now. In 2010 he presented a provocative paper in the Journal of Latin American Studies on the relationship between Brazil arguing that, historically, the idea of Brazil as part of Latin America was never fully embraced by Spanish Americans or Brazilians and here he continues to reflect on this issue. Leslie Bethell’s fascination with and commitment to Brazil is revealed for the first time in his introductory autobiographical essay that traces his career from school through the many senior academic positions he has held both sides of the Atlantic.

Published to mark his 80th birthday, this volume consists of seven essays by Leslie Bethell on major themes in modern Brazilian history and politics: Brazil and Latin America; Britain and Brazil (1808-1914); The Paraguayan War (1864-70); The decline and fall of slavery (1850-1888); The long road to democracy; Populism; The failure of the Left. The essays are new, but they draw on book chapters and journal articles published (mainly in Portuguese) and public lectures delivered in the ten years since his retirement as founding Director of the University of Oxford Centre for Brazilian Studies in 2007. In an autobiographical Introduction (Why Brazil?) Professor Bethell describes how, from the most unlikely of backgrounds, he became a historian of Brazil and how he came to devote much of his long academic career to the promotion and development of Brazilian studies in UK (and, to a lesser extent, US) universities.