The Throes of Democracy: Brazil since 1989 is a volume in a series that traces the historical context of developments in nations and regions since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. Previous volumes have included China, Mexico, India, Russia, Eastern Europe, and the two Koreas. For a Brazilianist, the year 1989 is significant not only in an international context but also a national one. Brazil’s new constitution was promulgated in 1988. The following year marked the first direct election of a civilian president in 29 years, inaugurating what has proved an extraordinary sequence of constitutional presidential successions. This work by Barry McCann is a concise, compelling narrative that folds the micro aspects of Brazil’s courte durée into the macro aspects of the moyenne durée. It recognizes the perennial axis of change/no change in Brazilian history and the development of a new core,...

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