The subject of this well-written book—the experiences of the German ethnic community in Brazil during the World War I era—is one relatively unexplored in English. The author sets the stage with an extended discussion of German immigration to Brazil, the rich complex of immigrant sociocultural institutions, and the turn-of-the-century debate over the international political implications of German chauvinism. Brazil’s campaign against the “German peril” escalated with belligerency in 1917 to include widespread violence against German and Teuto-Brazilian property, a ban on German-language publications, the forced closing of German schools in many areas, and the inevitable restrictions on German-owned businesses.
A specialist in German immigrant culture in the United States, Frederick Luebke offers enlightening comparative insights, contrasting the U. S. experience with that of Brazil, where Germans developed a “sharply defined society within society” (p. 33) and “a general sense of cultural superiority that had no real equal in the United States” (p. 222). The cultural identity of the German-speaking community in Brazil was sustained, among other things, by more marked sociocultural differences between host society and newcomer, concentrated and isolated settlement patterns, the electoral convenience of state political machines, and an extensive network of private schools created to fill the vacuum left by public education. The relative lack of assimilation largely explains why, during the war, the Brazilian’s reaction to the German was “remarkably violent and repressive compared to that of the American” (p. 221).
More extensive discussion of the important role of the immigrants and hyphenated Brazilians in the nation’s economic life, which the author mentions only in passing, would have helped to round out the story. The coverage is further limited by the fact that Luebke’s research was restricted almost exclusively to printed materials. Since he deals with government policies and international relations, perusal of official records and personal papers in Brazil and government flies in Germany, countries he visited to conduct his research, would have strengthened his analysis. Nonetheless, he does well at what primarily interests him—comparative cultural history—and his pioneering study will be quite useful to those interested in Brazilian history and the interaction between Europe and Latin America.
