Modern Brazil
History 404 / 504
Fall 2004
Mondays 5-7:15
Admin 227
Dale Graden

Office: Admin 305 A
Office Hour: Monday 8-9 a.m. or by appointment
Office Telephone: 885-8956
Email: Graden@uidaho.edu
web: http://www.class.uidaho.edu/Graden
This syllabus is available on line

The purpose of this course is to offer an overview of modern Brazilian history. Through readings, discussion and films, we shall analyze some of the important historical forces that made Brazil the extraordinary nation and region that it is today. You need no background in Brazilian or Latin American history, or Portuguese language skills, to take this course.

It is important that you attend the classes and participate in the discussions. At every class meeting there will be opportunities for an exchange of ideas. A course of this nature can only be successful through your active involvement and participation. I encourage debate and questions. Feel free to question my interpretations. I want our class to be an environment where each of you is challenged to think critically about the complex problems faced by Brazilians and all inhabitants of the Americas. I am hopeful that this course is as stimulating for you as it is for me, and one that inspires you to read about, visit and understand Brazil.

I reserve the right to determine a grade based on attendance and participation. If you miss more than five class meetings during the semester without an excuse, you will fail the course. If you cannot attend a class for health or other legitimate reasons, please inform me by email (address noted above). I want to emphasize that we all benefit by your commitment to this class from beginning to end.

You are requested to write three book critiques. Everyone is required to write critique number one (due Monday September 20) on Benedita da Silva, An Afro-Brazilian Woman’s Story of Politics and Love. Critiques number two and three are chosen from the other suggested readings in the course. Critiques number two and three that you select are due on the dates noted below on the syllabus. At each meeting when an assigned reading is due, we will discuss the book or essay. Each critique is worth twenty-five (25) points and your participation in class is worth twenty-five (25) points.

The 3-4 page critiques of a single book or article are assigned to all students to ensure that you read the book thoroughly and come to the class meetings prepared to share your insights. Your paper should address a theme(s) that you consider relevant and worthy of analysis. I would prefer not to receive a superficial overview of the book or article in these short essays. Rather, point out what you consider to key arguments of the author and comment on them. Don’t hesitate to make comparisons to other sources or to express your own opinions or interpretations. Good examples of book critiques can be found in The New York Review of Books and other magazines and journals that provide in-depth analyses of recent publications.

Please, write the critique two or three days before the due date, so that you can return to the computer the day before you hand it to me and make corrections and refinements. I have read thousands of these short papers, and I know when someone has scribbled down a bunch of ideas the night before and when the assignment has been approached seriously. I believe that these short papers are among the most important exercises that you can do as a student at a university. Why do I believe this, you ask! Because the majority of students graduate from universities and colleges across the land unable to read and write effectively. You are welcome to rewrite a critique; any paper you submit a second time will be taken into consideration when I determine the final grade. You are also welcome to write as many times as you wish, and I will read each of your essays with great interest.

An example of a book critique from this course : critique on Lula and the Workers Party

If you are taking this class for graduate credit, I request that you write an extra paper of five to ten (5-10) pages on a topic of your choice. This paper will be worth thirty (30) points, and the final grade of graduate students will be based on 130 points. Please meet with me to discuss your paper topic within the first three weeks of the course. I would also like an outline or a draft of the essay by week eight. Be sure that you cite correctly your sources with endnotes or footnotes (a good example can be found in articles published in the American Historical Review), and that you include a bibliography. For a short essay of this nature, it is always wisest to start with a specific topic and expand if necessary. There is great danger of trying to take on a broad topic that would necessitate extra research and your writing many more pages than the maximum number of ten pages. 

Unfortunately I have to mention plagiarism. Plagiarism is theft. It is liking walking into a store and stealing an article. This means that it is imperative that you write the three book critiques and no one else. It is quickly obvious when an individual has submitted an essay penned by another person. More than four words taken directly from another source, like an essay at a web site, is plagiarism.  If you have any concerns about the way you have organized and written an essay, or chosen words or phrases, be sure to cite your source. Please do not plagiarize. If you plagiarize, you fail the course.

The following books are available at the UI Bookstore and are on reserve in the library.

Teresa A. Meade, A Short History of Brazil, Checkmark Books, ISBN 0816057184
Robert Levine and John Crocitti, eds., The Brazil Reader: History, Culture, Politics, Duke University Press, ISBN0822322900
Medea Benjamin and Maisa Mendonça, Benedita da Silva: An Afro-Brazilian Woman’s Story of Politics and Love, Food First Books, ISBN 0935028706
Angus Wright and Wendy Wolford, To Inherit the Earth: The Landless Movement and the Struggle for a New Brazil, Food First Books, ISBN 0935028900
Sue Branford et.al., Lula and the Workers' Party in Brazil, New Press, ISBN 1565848667
Paulo Freire, Letters to Cristina, Routledge, ISBN 0415910978

Recommended online is ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin America at:
http://drclas.fas.harvard.edu/publications/revista.html

Week One Monday August 23

Reading: Meade, A Short History; Levine, The Brazil Reader, 1-57 

Introduction; indigenous cultures; the arrival of the Portuguese; colonialism; plantation agriculture; the modern world-system.

view "Behind the Sun"

Week Two August 30

Reading: Meade, A Short History; Levine, The Brazil Reader, 59-90

The Age of Revolution in the late 18th century and Brazil’s independence.

view the film "City of God"

Week Three September 6 No class, Labor Day

Levine, The Brazil Reader, 121-47.

Slavery in Brazil, liberal thought, emancipation in 1888, the new republic, race and immigration at the end of the 19th and early 20th century.

Week Four September 13

Reading: Benedita da Silva, An Afro-Brazilian Woman’s Story of Politics and Love, all

Recommended readings include Emilia Viotti da Costa, The Brazilian Empire; Levine, The Brazil Reader, 351-94.

Race, gender and class in modern Brazil, international political economy of the 20th century, television in Brazil.

view Graden and Alencar, "Africa in Brasil: Salvador da Bahia"

Week Five September 20

Reading: Da Silva, An Afro-Brazilian Woman’s Story, conclude

We will discuss da Silva, An Afro-Brazilian Woman’s Story. First required book critique is due. 

View "Capital Sins" from The Americas

Week Six September 27

Reading: Levine, The Brazil Reader, 149-224; Meade, A Short History

Getúlio Vargas and his epoch

view "Central Station"

Week Seven October 4

Reading: Levine, The Brazil Reader, 225-97; Meade, A Short History

Carmen Miranda; Bossa Nova; radical movements in the late 1950s and 1960s; military security state 1964-1985 and its aftermath

View "Carmen Miranda: Bananas is My Business"

Week Eight October 11

We will discuss Meade's and Levine’s perspectives on military rule. Optional critique number two is due.

discussion of recent Brazilian music and trends

Week Nine October 18

Reading: Levine, The Brazil Reader, 299-349

Recommended is Susan K. Besse, “Pagu: Patrícia Galvão - Rebel,” in Beezley and Ewell, eds., The Human Tradition in Modern Latin America, 165-80, on reserve

See website showing paintings of Tarsila do Amaral

View the film "Four Days in September"

Week Ten October 25

Reading: begin Wright and Wolford, To Inherit the Earth

View the documentary "Passion and War in the Backlands of Canudos"

Week Eleven November 1

Reading: conclude Wright and Wolford, To Inherit the Earth 
View documentary "Strong Roots: The Landless Workers' Movement in Brazil"

Week Twelve November 8

Reading: conclude Wright and Wolford, To Inherit the Earth

Discussion of To Inherit the Earth. Optional critique number three is due.
View documentary about the Amazon "The Decade of Destruction"

Recommended on Thursday Nov 11: Guest visit and discussion with Rich Wekerle. Rich resides in Moscow, Idaho. He recently returned home after spending six months at the Federal Prison at Sheridan, Oregon. Rich will be in Admin 227 at 9:30-10:45 and Admin 336 at 11-12:15.

From Mr. Wekerle's web site: "On November 23, 2003, Rich chose to become a Prisoner of Conscience, thereby standing in solidarity with thousands of people who have died as a result of the actions of some Latin American army personnel who were trained at the School of the Americas located in Ft. Benning, Georgia.
Along with 26 other people Rich stepped onto the army base where all of them were arrested for trespass.
On January 26, 2004, these 27 individuals were sentenced to probation or 3-6 months in federal prison."

I encourage you to read Rich's website at http://www.rweker.com

Also recommended is Leslie Gill, "Soldiering the Empire," on line at NACLA: Report on the Americas 38:2 (September / October 2004) :  http://www.nacla.org/art_display.php?art=2473

Week Thirteen November 15

Reading: Branford, Lula and the Workers Party
Recommended is Barry Bearak, "Poor Man's Burden," New York Times Magazine, 27 June 2004 : on reserve

Discussion of Branford, Lula. Optional critique number four is due.
View documentary "Without Fear of Being Happy"

Thanksgiving (week 14)

Week Fifteen November 29

Reading: Freire, Letters to Cristina

View the film "Midnight"

Week Sixteen December 6

Reading: Freire, Letters to Cristina

We will discuss Freire, Letters to Cristina. Optional critique number five is due.

View film "Chronically Unfeasible"

A few suggested titles for Brazil in the 1950s and during the military regime, 1964-1985

Phyllis R. Parker, Brazil and the Quiet Intervention, 1964
José Comblin, The Church and the National Security State
Maria Helena Moreira Alves, State and Opposition in Military Brazil
Ruth Leacock, Requiem for Revolution: The United States and Brazil, 1961-1969
Joseph A. Page, The Revolution that Never Was: Northeast Brazil , 1955-1964
Martha K. Huggins, Political Policing: The United States and Latin America
Emir Sadir and Ken Silverstein, Without Fear of Being Happy: Lula, The Workers Party and Brazil
Caetano Veloso, Tropical Truth: A Story of Music and Revolution in Brazil

Some films of interest

How Tasty is my Little Frenchman
Pixote
Central Station
Faces of Slavery
Xica
Ganga Zumba
Life and Debt
Children of Rio
City of God
Midnight
Passion and War in the Backlands of Canudos
The Burning Season: The Chico Mendes Story
At Play in the Fields of the Lord
The Decade of Destruction