Jeffrey Mosher has succeeded in producing an important book that will become a touchstone for historiographical debates for years to come. His book demonstrates the complexity of nation-state formation in Brazil and, by focusing on the violent, sometimes protracted revolts that repeatedly and decisively rocked the northeastern province of Pernambuco (in 1817, 1824, 1831, 1832 – 35, and 1848), suggests that Brazil’s constitutional and political form at midcentury largely resulted from the interplay of the conflict that pitted provinces against the court based in Rio de Janeiro. In this erudite study, Mosher demonstrates convincingly that previous analysts of Brazilian politics in the period 1820 – 50, who focus exclusively on kinship and patronage networks, fail to understand the dynamic that pitted province against capital. Moreover, he demonstrates how much is gained when provincial politics are taken seriously, revealing the “mutual influence between provincial social and political struggles on the one...
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