In this monograph, Gerald Greenfield goes beyond his previous examination of imperial elite discourse on the Great Drought—the devastating drought that ravaged the backlands of much of the Brazilian Northeast between 1877 and 1879—and elite constructions on the usefulness of relief assistance to retirantes, or drought victims. He seeks to unveil the relationship between the imperial elites’ class interests, their political discourse on the drought, and the practical effects of that discourse on the reality of suffering and death of retirantes. This is a welcome addition to the scant scholarly literature on the history of the Great Drought and, more broadly, that of the backlands of Northeast Brazil.

The book’s greatest contribution is its demonstration of the connections between imperial, provincial, and even municipal politics and the timing and nature of the allocation of relief help. Through the use of parliamentary records and official correspondence, Greenfield shows that self-interest...

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