Senhor Fausto Cupertino, an economist, seems to have just discovered that there are social classes and wants to inform others of his discovery in this naive scissors and paste compilation. He divides his book into two parts: “Theory” and Empirical Reality.” For theory, he introduces his readers primarily to Karl Marx and Rodolfo Stavenhagen through long—very long—quotations. The readers would have to be beginning their introductory course in Latin American history not to have encountered these basic ideas before. The author makes no effort to apply any original interpretations to the quotations.
The second part relies almost exclusively on statistics. Few of them will surprise researchers or readers interested in contemporary Brazil. Most or all of them are readily available in the national censuses. At any rate, the raw data of part two will require readers to construct their own “reality.” The author fails to connect the theories of part one with the realities of part two, assuming that you agree that the hodgepodge of part one contains some theory. The title to this little book outshines the content.
