Synopses & Reviews
In
The Color of Modernity, Barbara Weinstein focuses on race, gender, and regionalism in the formation of national identities in Brazil; this focus allows her to explore how uneven patterns of economic development are consolidated and understood. Organized around two principal episodesandmdash;the 1932 Constitutionalist Revolution and 1954andrsquo;s IV Centenandaacute;rio, the quadricentennial of Sandatilde;o Pauloandrsquo;s foundingandmdash;this book shows how both elites and popular sectors in Sandatilde;o Paulo embraced a regional identity that emphasized their European origins and aptitude for modernity and progress, attributes that becameandmdash;and remainandmdash;associated with andldquo;whiteness.andrdquo; This racialized regionalism naturalized and reproduced regional inequalities, as Sandatilde;o Paulo became synonymous with prosperity while Brazilandrsquo;s Northeast, a region plagued by drought and poverty, came to represent backwardness and Sandatilde;o Pauloandrsquo;s racial andldquo;Other.andrdquo;and#160; This view of regional difference, Weinstein argues, led to development policies that exacerbated these inequalities and impeded democratization.
Review
andquot;
The Color of Modernity is a major work in the history of modern Brazil and an important intervention in social theories of race, modernity, regionalism, and nationalism. Barbara Weinsteinand#39;s history of the construction of regional identity in twentieth-century Sandatilde;o Paulo offers a model for building cultural theory from rigorous empirical research in social, political, and intellectual history. It is a work of startling originality by one of the preeminent historians of modern Brazil.andquot;
Review
andquot;The Color of Modernity is a pathbreaking work. Barbara Weinsteinand#39;s exhaustive research and nuanced analysis of twentieth-century Brazilian political and social history will substantially reshape the field. The Color of Modernity will be required reading for all students of modern Brazil.andquot;
About the Author
Barbara Weinstein is the Silver Professor of History at New York University. She is the coeditor of
The Making of the Middle Class: Toward a Transnational History, also published by Duke University Press, and the author of
For Social Peace in Brazil: Industrialists and the Remaking of the Working Class in Sandatilde;o Paulo, 1920-1964.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. Paulista Modernand#160; 27
Part I: The War of Sandatilde;o Paulo
2. Constituting Paulista Identityand#160; 71
3. The Middle Class in Arms? Fighting for Sandatilde;o Pauloand#160; 110
4. Marianne into Battle? The Mulher Paulista and the Revolution of 1932and#160; 161
5. Provincializing Sandatilde;o Paulo: The andquot;Otherandquot; Regions Strike Backand#160; 192
Part II: Commemorating Sandatilde;o Paulo
6. Sandatilde;o Paulo Triumphantand#160; 221
7. Exhibiting Exceptionalism: History at the IV Centenandaacute;rioand#160; 267
8. The White Album: Memory, Identity, and the 1932 Uprisingand#160; 296
Epilogue and Conclusionand#160; 331
Notesand#160;and#160; 345
Bibliographyand#160; 419
Indexand#160; 445