The founding of Volta Redonda, Brazil’s first large-scale steel mill, is a unique turning point in Brazilian economic history quite deserving of intensive study. Although much is available in Portuguese on the subject, a great source of Brazilian pride and controversy, Professor Rady provides the first rendition in English of the National Steel Company story from its inception in 1940 through its growth into the 1960s. A detailed narrative draws on an extensive bibliography of secondary sources, government and company documents, interviews and captured German ministry records. Chapters on steel-related resources and the historical background of the industry round out the study.
It is disappointing, however, to find that the author missed the opportunity to build upon the earlier contributions of John D. Wirth and Werner Baer (whose works are unacknowledged). The text is a generally uncritical narrative, seldom stooping to analysis and often reading like a chamber of commerce brochure. Where else would one read that employee satisfaction is the reason not a single minute of work time has been lost to strikes, in reference to a government company with government-controlled unions? Indiscriminate use of sources, which are often outdated by thirty and fifty years, leads to sometimes humorous factual errors. Geologist John Van N. Dorr was certainly surprised to learn he is “now deceased.” Figures and charts seldom carry past 1964 or 1966, and the use of computers claimed in the preface is nowhere in evidence. In short, the book appears to be what the jacket notice says it is not, a “warmed-over” 1961 Ph.D. thesis, and not a terribly exciting one at that.