This is a paperbound reprint of a 2005 book. Aiming to provide readers with as diverse a collection of academic perspectives on Brazil as possible, Souza (sociology, Universidade Estadual do Notre Fluminense, Brazil) and Sinder (anthropology, U. of the State of Rio de Janeiro) present a multidisciplinary group of 14 papers examining, first, Brazil's society and politics, and then its literature and culture. Topics include social inequality, formation of the public space in Brazilian democracy, the Paraguayan War as a constitutional and economic turning point, Max Weber and the interpretation of Brazil, racial politics, literary imagination and modernity, popular music, intellectuals and politics, and the work of "psychological novelist" Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)