brazil a biography review

• ADMIN AREA MY BOOKSHELF MY DASHBOARD MY PROFILE SIGN OUT SIGN IN

A BIOGRAPHY

by Lilia M. Schwarcz & Heloisa M. Starling ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 7, 2018

A welcome, readable history of a country that ranks high among the world’s economic powers but is too little known beyond...

A sprawling “biography” of a vast country that has always been much different from any of its neighbors in South America.

"If you steal a little you’re a thief,” goes a Brazilian proverb, “if you steal a lot you’re a chief.” A colonial power, Brazil was a source of immense wealth for its colonizer, Portugal, for generations, even if the colonizing class soon found that the parent nation’s “finances had been seriously affected by the high cost of running the empire.” It was always a kind of business proposition. As Brazilian historians Schwarcz (Anthropology/Univ. of São Paulo; The Emperor's Beard: Dom Pedro II and His Tropical Monarchy in Brazil , 2004, etc.) and Starling write, although African slavery had existed for a long time before Portuguese ships appeared, when they did arrive, it was with an innovation: that slaves would be put to work in agriculture and not, as before, in artisanal enterprises. When Brazil became independent, it enshrined its own ruling class, with voting rights extended to only a small class of landowners; it was the last on the continent to abolish the slavery that had made its rich agriculture possible. Some of the aspects of the Brazilian approach to life, write the authors, seem constant and remain “shockingly resistant to improvement,” especially the violent undercurrent that has always run through the nation’s history. Another less pronounced current is regionalism; in the early 19th century, for instance, some of the southern provinces of the nation tried to break away, leading to a civil war. Yet, the authors add, history is not necessarily destiny. In their youth, a time of junta and military dictatorship, the thought that a leftist like Lula or Dilma Rousseff could become president would have been unthinkable, and although “extreme social injustice still exists alongside democracy,” the country is making strides in containing corruption and smoothing out some of the rougher edges of inequality.

Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018

ISBN: 978-0-374-28049-9

Page Count: 684

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: June 26, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018

CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES | HISTORY | WORLD | GENERAL CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES | GENERAL HISTORY

Share your opinion of this book

Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

Kirkus Reviews' Best Books Of 2017

New York Times Bestseller

IndieBound Bestseller

National Book Award Finalist

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON

The osage murders and the birth of the fbi.

by David Grann ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 18, 2017

Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.

Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.

During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann ( The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession , 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.

Pub Date: April 18, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017

GENERAL HISTORY | TRUE CRIME | UNITED STATES | FIRST/NATIVE NATIONS | HISTORY

More by David Grann

BOOK REVIEW

by David Grann

More About This Book

BOOK TO SCREEN

by Elie Wiesel & translated by Marion Wiesel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 16, 2006

The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...

Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children. 

He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions. 

Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006

ISBN: 0374500010

Page Count: 120

Publisher: Hill & Wang

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | HOLOCAUST | HISTORY | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | GENERAL HISTORY

More by Elie Wiesel

by Elie Wiesel ; edited by Alan Rosen

by Elie Wiesel ; illustrated by Mark Podwal

by Elie Wiesel ; translated by Marion Wiesel

• Discover Books Fiction Thriller & Suspense Mystery & Detective Romance Science Fiction & Fantasy Nonfiction Biography & Memoir Teens & Young Adult Children's
• News & Features Bestsellers Book Lists Profiles Perspectives Awards Seen & Heard Book to Screen Kirkus TV videos In the News
• Kirkus Prize Winners & Finalists About the Kirkus Prize Kirkus Prize Judges
• Magazine Current Issue All Issues Manage My Subscription Subscribe
• Writers’ Center Hire a Professional Book Editor Get Your Book Reviewed Advertise Your Book Launch a Pro Connect Author Page Learn About The Book Industry
• More Kirkus Diversity Collections Kirkus Pro Connect My Account/Login
• About Kirkus History Our Team Contest FAQ Press Center Info For Publishers
• Privacy Policy
• Terms & Conditions
• Reprints, Permission & Excerpting Policy

© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Popular in this Genre

Hey there, book lover.

We’re glad you found a book that interests you!

Please select an existing bookshelf

Create a new bookshelf.

We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!

Please sign up to continue.

It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!

Already have an account? Log in.

Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.

Almost there!

• Industry Professional

Welcome Back!

Sign in using your Kirkus account

Contact us: 1-800-316-9361 or email [email protected].

Don’t fret. We’ll find you.

Magazine Subscribers ( How to Find Your Reader Number )

If You’ve Purchased Author Services

Don’t have an account yet? Sign Up.

• Previous Issue
• Previous Article
• Next Article

Brazil: A Biography

• Article contents
• Figures & tables
• Supplementary Data
• Peer Review
• Open the PDF for in another window
• Permissions
• Cite Icon Cite
• Search Site

Barbara Weinstein; Brazil: A Biography. Hispanic American Historical Review 1 August 2021; 101 (3): 504–506. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/00182168-9051912

Download citation file:

• Reference Manager

It is good news for anyone in the Anglophone world interested in Brazil that there is now a single volume in English, by two of Brazil's most eminent historians, that surveys that nation's history from its colonial roots to the very recent past. There are other histories of Brazil available to the interested reader, but they tend to be volumes written specifically with the undergraduate classroom in mind. Brazil: A Biography is not that sort of book; for one thing, there are few undergraduate courses—outside Brazil—in which the students are likely to be amenable to reading a history of Brazil that clocks in at over 600 pages (not counting endnotes) and that often goes into exhaustive detail about relatively obscure political episodes. No, the ideal reader for the book under review is not the fledgling history major but more likely a graduate student in Latin American history or a historian...

Advertisement

Citing articles via

Email alerts, related articles, related topics, related book chapters, affiliations.

• About Hispanic American Historical Review
• Editorial Board
• For Authors
• Rights and Permissions Inquiry
• Online ISSN 1527-1900
• Print ISSN 0018-2168
• Copyright © 2024
• Duke University Press
• 905 W. Main St. Ste. 18-B
• Durham, NC 27701
• (888) 651-0122
• International
• +1 (919) 688-5134
• Information For
• Advertisers
• Book Authors
• Booksellers/Media
• Journal Authors/Editors
• Journal Subscribers
• Prospective Journals
• Licensing and Subsidiary Rights
• View Open Positions
• email Join our Mailing List
• catalog Current Catalog
• Accessibility
• Get Adobe Reader

This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

WilliamGAFrost

Brazil: A Biography – book review

By Lilia M. Schwarcz and Helosia M. Starling 

Published by Allen Lane, translated edition in 2018. 

Brazil’s past is covered in meticulous yet readable detail in this stunning new history of South America’s largest country. Schwarcz and Starling have produced an enjoyable read that takes the reader through the various stages of Brazil’s history, right from the early days of discovery and colonisation in the early sixteenth century, to the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff in 2016 and its consequences for the modern day country. These two historians have managed to produce an in depth narrative that manages to seamlessly combine social and political history. 

This is a large undertaking at 602 pages, however the text manages to keep the reader’s attention and is engaging throughout. The perspective from which the book is written is objective and fair and seeks to give as accurate an account of the past as possible. Key themes such as the transatlantic slave trade, the Portuguese Royal family’s arrival in Rio de Janeiro in 1808, the Brazilian Empire and the republican revolution of 1889 are all dealt with in a thorough way. The authors demonstrate a high level of research and the detail provided facilitates an easier understanding of what is a relatively complicated history. 

A series of five maps, demonstrating how the territory of Brazil has changed since its early days of colonization, to the present day, aid the reader in understanding the geographical environment in which the historical events take place which is extremely useful. They also show just how big the country became over a period of 500 years; indeed, with the exception of the region of Cisplatina, which makes up the current nation of Uruguay, Brazil did nothing but increase in size right up until the 1910’s. This is a demonstration of the truly continental size of the country. There are also a series of colour prints of relevant paintings and photos that illustrate some of the key episodes considered by the authors. 

Brazil has had a turbulent past but the authors do not seek to shy away from these difficult episodes, on the contrary they face them head on. Thorny issues such as national identity are discussed.  

“Since Brazil has been Brasil – since the country first created its identity as a nation – there has been a long history of internal conflict, violence, attempts at self- government and demands for equality – accompanied by the gradual development of human rights and citizenship. “ P.577

They are equally as unflinching when it comes to the gruesome subject of slavery and its legacy. This is a topic that is becoming more and more discussed in Brazil as an integral part of its past. In a subchapter entitled “Slavery is synonymous with violence” (p.85) the historians state.

“The repetitive, arduous, exhausting work on the plantations was in itself a form of violence. This forced labour, betokening as it did the authority of the master, instilled a constant feeling of dread, as well as terror of the collective punishments that were frequently applied.”  p.86

Brazil imported the largest amount of captives from the African continent than any other nation, between 4 and 5 million slaves over four centuries of the trade. With this in mind it is good to see that the topic is now being examined in more detail and with more frequency. 

Dealing with more recent times, the military dictatorship of 1964-1985 is dealt with in a clear and balanced way, exposing some of the techniques used by the military hierarchy to justify their repressive and at times violent means of government. 

“The AI-1 [First Institutional Act] also allowed the military police to arrest people en masse, close off streets, conduct individual house-to-house searches, all of which occurred in 1964… when around 50,000 people were detained in a deployment that police baptized ‘Operation Cleanup’.”  p.523

The crimes committed by the state during this dark period in the country’s history are discussed in a courageous way; this is still a traumatic topic for many Brazilians who lived through that regime and many of the atrocities are still coming to light today. The historians also relate the struggle that Brazil has faced emerging out of military rule and how democracy has had many setbacks since 1985. This included erratic economic policy and an instable currency, the nadir of which was the decision of the then president, Fernando Collor, to freeze all citizens’ bank accounts, which had a disastrous effect. 

“In the banks, part of the money [80%] in checking accounts was blocked… the amount withheld would be returned in eighteen months… Twenty years later 890,000 individual court cases and 1,030 class actions are still waiting for a judicial decision.”  p.570

Mr Collor later (in 1992) resigned on the eve of an impeachment trial for corruption and misuse of public funds, an episode which demonstrated how long and complicated the road back to a semblance of stability would be for Brazil. In this analysis of the modern era, the historians manage to bridge the gap between history and political science giving the book an all encompassing feel, that gives the content a broader appeal. 

The strength of this “biography” is its brutal honesty. The historians are clearly trying to uncover uncomfortable truths about the past that they feel need to be given fresh airtime in an attempt to make sense of the present day nation. Whilst this makes for a harrowing read at times, it is however worthwhile for the clarity and insight that it provides. 

Brazilian history is not simple to understand and is also not a linear evolution, however the authors guide the reader through each era with a level of clarity and expertise so that light is shed onto even the most complicated episodes. In this respect is it recommended for Brazilianists as well as to readers unfamiliar with the topic. This is a masterful work written by two consummate academics at the top of their game. Single volume histories of Brazil are also relatively rare making this one even more significant. This is an excellent book of exceptionally high quality and therefore an unmissable read for anyone interested in the past or present of Brazil. 

Share this:

Leave a comment, cancel reply.

• Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
• Subscribe Subscribed
• Copy shortlink
• Report this content
• View post in Reader
• Manage subscriptions
• Collapse this bar

Accessibility Links

Review: Brazil: A Biography by Lilia M Schwarcz and Heloisa M Starling — colourful history of a gloriously dynamic nation

Scarred by slavery, the hell of the sugar plantations and dictatorships: an eye-opening account of brazil’s brutal past. review by dominic sandbrook.

I n the autumn of 1896, one of the strangest and saddest wars in modern history broke out in the desperately poor, arid uplands of the Brazilian state of Bahia. A few years earlier, the village of Canudos had been chosen by a wandering mystical preacher, Antonio Conselheiro (“the Counsellor”), as the location for a new promised land, based on common ownership, the abolition of marriage and the absence of class or colour distinctions.

At a time of depression and drought, with slavery having been abolished less than a decade earlier, Conselheiro’s vision caught on. By 1896, Canudos had more than 24,000 inhabitants, many of them former African slaves, landless Indians and destitute farmers.

To Brazil’s new republican government, dedicated to the principles of order, secularism

Related articles

Advertisement

More from the Review

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Best of The New York Review, plus books, events, and other items of interest

• The New York Review of Books: recent articles and content from nybooks.com
• The Reader's Catalog and NYR Shop: gifts for readers and NYR merchandise offers
• New York Review Books: news and offers about the books we publish
• I consent to having NYR add my email to their mailing list.
• Hidden Form Source

April 18, 2024

Current Issue

Brazil’s Brutal Messiah

December 6, 2018 issue

Submit a letter:

Email us [email protected]

Brazil: A Biography

If we were to think of Brazil as a person rather than a country, as Lilia Schwarcz and Heloisa Starling encourage us to do in their sweeping new history Brazil: A Biography , it would be someone who, at the moment, seems schizophrenic. Consider, for example, the October 28 run-off election to choose the country’s next president. One candidate was a neofascist former army captain with a penchant for insulting Afro-Brazilians, women, indigenous peoples, and sexual minorities; a declared affinity for the military dictatorship that ruled the country brutally from 1964 to 1985; and a desire to fight crime by allowing citizens to arm themselves and letting trigger-happy cops take the law into their own hands. The other candidate was the last-minute stand-in for a two-term former president and still-popular left-wing labor leader currently serving a twelve-year prison sentence for corruption, money-laundering, and bribe-taking. Millions of poor Brazilians were lifted precariously into the middle class during his presidency, but at the same time billions of dollars were siphoned from the public treasury into his party’s campaign coffers and the pockets of its leaders.

Faced with that unpalatable choice, all other options having been eliminated in first-round balloting on October 7, Brazilians elected, by a decisive ten-point margin, the extreme right-wing authoritarian Jair Bolsonaro to a four-year term that begins January 1, thereby also inaugurating what is certain to be a period of enormous political and social stress, uncertainty, and tumult. Bolsonaro, a truculent sixty-three-year-old congressional deputy from a small fringe party whom some have already taken to calling “the Trump of the Tropics,” owed his ascent to a coalition that included the São Paulo financial elite, the rural landed interests that have devastated the Amazon over the past fifty years, and a growing population of evangelicals. But what put him over the top was the support of urban middle-class voters disgusted by rampant corruption, rising crime rates, and what at least some of them view as the coddling of the darker-skinned poor in recent years.

Schwarcz and Starling obviously could not address the election in Brazil: A Biography , and Bolsonaro’s rise has been so unexpected and so swift that his name never appears in their book. But their detailed and deeply reasoned examination of Brazilian history—starting with the arrival on April 22, 1500, of the Portuguese nobleman and explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral on the shores of what is today Bahia—goes a long way toward explaining how the world’s fourth-largest democracy and eighth-largest economy has come to this unfortunate and, until just a few months ago, unthinkable situation. In the process, they offer some grounds for hope that Brazil may yet emerge from its latest crisis with its battered democratic institutions still functioning, but they also sound cautionary notes based on their close reading of its conflict-ridden past.

Throughout the country’s history, the authors write early in the book, “certain stubbornly insistent traits can be observed,” perhaps the principal one being “the challenging and tortuous process of building citizenship” so as to include all Brazilians, not just those with access to power and money. No matter what the political or social order, “authoritarianism and personal interest have always been deeply rooted,” they continue, “undermining the free exercise of civic power, weakening public institutions and consequently the struggle for people’s rights.”

Like the United States, Brazil is a nation of immigrants and a country of continental dimensions. It also shares the stain of the same original sin, slavery, except that in Brazil “the peculiar institution” was far more extensive and pervasive. Slavery there began a full century earlier than in the US, endured until 1888 (Brazil was the last country in the Western Hemisphere to abolish it), was found throughout the country rather than being largely confined to a single region, and blighted many more lives: of the estimated 12 million Africans transported to the New World as slaves, about one third ended up in Brazil, compared to fewer than 500,000 in the United States. In addition, entire Indian tribes were subjugated and shackled or, if they resisted too vigorously, simply exterminated as part of what Schwarcz and Starling call “a story of genocide and conquest.”

These disparities help explain some of the fundamental divergences in the experience and consequences of slavery in the two countries. By the early nineteenth century, the authors note, Rio de Janeiro, then the capital, had “the largest concentration of slaves since ancient Rome, with the difference that, in Rio de Janeiro, their number equalled the number of inhabitants of European descent.” As a result, Brazil claims more people of African descent than any country in Africa except Nigeria. Today, Brazil’s census has five “color” categories, but the majority of the country’s 211 million people describe themselves as either “brown” (a catchall designation for mixed-race people of every hue and combination) or “black.” *

Yet this numerical superiority has never translated into political or economic power for blacks and mestizos, or anything even remotely resembling social equality. Writing about the early twentieth century, Schwarcz and Starling quote another scholar’s mordant remark that “freedom was black, but equality was white.” What that means, they explain, is that “while white elites enjoyed equality and citizenship and were allowed to vote, former slaves were supposed to be content with the mere right to come and go.”

A century later, that struggle continues. The first two Afro-Brazilians to be appointed cabinet ministers were both mega-celebrities—the soccer great Pelé as minister for sport in 1995 and the brilliant singer-songwriter Gilberto Gil as minister of culture in 2003—and the first black Supreme Court chief justice, Joaquim Barbosa, was named in 2003. “The playing field is still uneven and racial prejudice is ubiquitous in public venues such as restaurants, clubs, theaters and football stadiums, not to mention in private ones,” the authors conclude. “Brazil’s history of slavery and its twentieth-century dictatorships seem to have left an indelible mark.”

This has never been an especially popular—or even widely acknowledged—view in Brazil, as any foreigner who dares to question the prevailing orthodoxy will quickly discover. In works ranging from Gilberto Freyre’s The Masters and the Slaves: A Study in the Development of Brazilian Civilization , first published in 1933, to a thinly argued 2006 best seller by Ali Kamel, a Brazilian of Syrian descent, called We Are Not Racists , Brazilians have been encouraged to think of relations between the races as benign, especially in comparison to other countries, the United States in particular. But Schwarcz and Starling don’t flinch in the face of the unassailable historical evidence to the contrary; their index includes two pages of references to slavery and the way it dominated and continues to permeate Brazilian life, including subheadings for “branding of slaves,” “Brazilian attempts to eliminate history of” slavery, “brutal treatment,” “child slaves,” “death from diseases of the New World” and “enforced prostitution.”

“Although slavery is no longer practised in Brazil, its legacy casts a long shadow,” they write.

The experience of violence and pain is repeated, dispersed, and persists in modern Brazilian society, affecting so many aspects of people’s lives…. The indelible mark of slavery conditions Brazilian culture; the country defines itself on the basis of gradations of skin colour.

Brazilians have elected a white woman as president (Dilma Rousseff, who was impeached and removed from office in 2016, is the daughter of a Bulgarian immigrant). But they have never had a self-identified Afro-Brazilian occupy the office (although one early-twentieth-century president was widely believed to be “passing” as white and was ridiculed as such in cartoons and song). Bolsonaro is of Italian and German descent, while his vanquished opponent, former São Paulo mayor and education minister Fernando Haddad, is the son of a Lebanese immigrant, as is the country’s extremely unpopular current president, Michel Temer.

Yet in a contradiction that outsiders find hard to fathom, Brazil is also “a country that does not obey the established correlations between the dominator, on the one hand, and the dominated on the other,” the book cautions. African influences are present in almost all aspects of daily life and are mostly embraced even by the whitest of Brazilians as a point of pride. The mixture of races in Brazil is “unequalled in any other country,” they add, and has “generated a society that was defined by mixed marriages, rhythms, arts, sports, aromas, cuisine and literary expression,” producing “new cultures born from its hybrid nature and variety of experiences.” Hence the spectacle of whites who claim “a foot in the kitchen” (a clearly racist slang expression indicating some small portion of African ancestry) as a badge of authenticity.

Both Schwarcz and Starling are distinguished scholars with important works to their credit. Schwarcz, a professor of anthropology at the University of São Paulo and a visiting professor at Princeton, has written biographies of Emperor Pedro II, the émigré French painter Nicolas-Antoine Taunay, and the mulatto writer Lima Barreto, as well as pioneering studies of race such as Not Black, Not White, Just the Opposite: Color and Race in Brazilian Sociability (2013) and The Spectacle of the Races: Scientists, Institutions, and the Race Question in Brazil, 1870–1930 (1993). Starling, a historian and political scientist who teaches at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, is the author of Memories of Brazil (1999) and The Lords of Gerais (2018) and has edited journals and organized conferences that explore the juncture of politics and culture in Brazil.

Intertwined with the long history of racial and social inequality and exploitation they describe is a deep-rooted pattern of corruption. If members of the elite were allowed to regard other human beings as their personal property, then why not also the nation’s resources or even the state itself? Brazil was originally organized as a set of hereditary “captaincies,” which the authors define as a system that “delegated the task of colonizing and exploiting vast areas of territory to private citizens” with “supreme powers” over the domains they controlled. From there, it is not at all difficult to draw a line to the greed and malfeasance of more recent kleptocratic governors, mayors, and legislators at all levels of government, culminating in the wholesale looting of the public treasury during the rule of the Workers’ Party from 2003 to 2016, when Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Rousseff were in office.

Tellingly, the authors note that while slave rebellions were frequent during colonial times, the first major, though ultimately unsuccessful, uprising against Portuguese rule—which took place in Starling’s home state of Minas Gerais (Portugese for “General Mines”) in 1789 and was inspired by the example of America’s founding fathers—had leaders who were as much opportunists as patriots. “Most of the conspirators were involved in some way or other with the smuggling of gold and diamonds.” One, a priest, is described as having “spent much of his life defrauding the Crown” by producing counterfeit currency, bribing civil and ecclesiastical authorities, and ingeniously diverting diamonds “from the official route to Lisbon to a clandestine one that ended in Amsterdam.”

When independence was finally achieved in 1822, it came in a form that distinguished Brazil from the rest of the Western Hemisphere. Fleeing an invasion by Napoleon’s troops in 1807, the Portuguese royal family and court sailed to Rio de Janeiro, instantly changing Brazil’s status from colony to seat of a global empire in which “Portugal had been relegated to a secondary position within its own imperial system.” King João VI returned to Lisbon after the Liberal Revolution of 1820 broke out, while his son and heir, Pedro, remained in Brazil as regent. Two years later he declared Brazil’s independence and became its first emperor. Revolutionary upheaval and the political fragmentation that soon afflicted Spanish America were thus avoided, with the monarchy providing a symbol of national unity for nearly seventy years. But that stability came with a high price: the same tiny elite remained in control, largely hostile to new ideas and eager to guard its privileges.

After the monarchy was overthrown in a military coup in November 1889 and a republic dominated by coffee and sugar barons replaced it, newly freed slaves were mostly left to fend for themselves, since the new regime preferred to devote its money and attention to attracting immigrants from Europe, the Middle East, and Japan, both to “lighten” the population’s skin color and to provide labor in fields and factories. After abolition was decreed by Princess Isabel while her father was abroad and she was acting as the imperial regent, the authors note, “black people were treated with a kind of silent and perverse prejudice.”

Two parallel processes were at work: “An emphasis on the so-called inferiority of blacks and mestizos, and an attempt to eliminate the country’s history of slavery and its legacy.” Treated as “sub-citizens,” “non-whites were thought to be lazy, immoral and socially disorganized.” Echoes of such attitudes persist today, lurking at the back of the Brazilian psyche. In August, for example, Bolsonaro’s running mate, the retired general Hamilton Mourão—Brazilians are fond of naming their children after historical figures like Washington, Emerson, Lafayette, Wellington, or even Demosthenes, Pericles, and Cicero—said that the country’s main problem was that it had been bequeathed not just “an Iberian culture of privilege,” a statement with which few would disagree, but also “a certain heritage of indolence, which comes from the Indians” as well as a tradition of “shiftlessness and dishonesty, which originates with the African. That is our melting pot.”

The racially loaded word Mourão used to describe the behavior of Brazilian blacks, malandragem , appears in the title of one of Schwarcz and Starling’s chapters: “ Samba , Malandragem , Authoritarianism: The Birth of Modern Brazil.” They define malandragem both as the conduct of “a person who lived on the borderline between legality and illegality,” surviving on his wits, and also as “a political choice, characterized by a disdain for the world of work.” It is a strategy, in other words, adopted by those at the bottom of the social and economic ladder in the absence of legitimate opportunities for advancement, and it’s not all that different from the get-rich-quick mentality of the grandees who controlled the country for five hundred years. That helps explain an old Brazilian proverb translated in the book as “steal a little, you’re a thief, steal a lot and you’re a chief.”

In general, Schwarcz and Starling maintain, Brazil is “a country on the lookout for the daily miracle, or some unexpected saviour.” Coincidentally, Bolsonaro’s middle name is Messias, the Portuguese word for “messiah,” and he embodies a familiar “I alone can fix it” type that Brazilians sarcastically refer to as “the savior of the Fatherland.” “People cross their fingers in the hope that some magical intervention will fall from the skies,” the authors write, thereby “alleviating malaise and solving all problems.” As a result, “immediatism takes the place of planning substantive, long-term changes.”

This is not the first time the country has shown a fondness for a strongman. Brazil: A Biography devotes two substantial chapters to Getúlio Vargas, the most important political figure in modern Brazilian history, who ruled as a dictator from 1930 to 1945 and then returned triumphantly to power after being elected president in 1950, only to commit suicide in office four years later. “Vargas was a highly skilled politician, but he was authoritarian,” Schwarcz and Starling write. “Accustomed to dictatorial solutions, confident in his own charisma, widely experienced in uprisings and coups d’état, he simply was not cut out for working in a democratic environment.” They also single out two more recent presidents, Fernando Collor and Jânio Quadros, as being grain from the same sack, to use a Brazilian expression: “They both had an inclination for histrionics, contempt for politicians, disdain for Congress, a moral vision for the country, and an authoritarian style.”

Though Brazil: A Biography is comprehensive, it is not all-inclusive, and contains some puzzling omissions. Schwarcz and Starling wisely do not limit their focus to politics and economics, offering highly readable summaries of important literary, musical, architectural, and even culinary figures and movements. They discuss cultural achievements ranging from the Brazilian Baroque of the eighteenth century and the romantic Indianist novels and operas of the mid-nineteenth century to the Modernist painters and writers of the 1920s and the Tropicalistas of the 1960s and 1970s. (Curiously, though, neither the novelist Clarice Lispector nor the multimedia artist Hélio Oiticica, both now seen abroad as major figures, makes an appearance in the book.)

Brazilians have always wanted their country to be taken seriously, to be seen not just as a stronghold of soccer and samba. But given the centrality of soccer in Brazilian daily life, especially as a symbol of pride and mastery, it is surprising that nowhere in the book’s six hundred pages of text is Pelé mentioned; in general the sport itself, which along with the entertainment industry was traditionally one of the only avenues for Afro-Brazilians to rise socially and economically, receives short shrift. The authors acknowledge that soccer is “an iconic metaphor for Brazilian nationality,” but the only soccer stars they reference are Sócrates and Reinaldo, and then only for their political activities. I would also like to have seen some discussion of the importance of the semi-official death squads that operated with impunity during the military dictatorship and over the decades evolved into private “militias,” which strongly supported Bolsonaro. More attention could have been paid to Brazil’s homegrown environmental movement. And whatever happened to the very useful chronology, setting developments in Brazil alongside others around the world, that appears at the back of the Brazilian edition?

Brazil: A Biography reads as if it were translated by committee (no individual translator is credited on the title page). Terms with established meanings in Portuguese are translated one way in one chapter, only to be rendered as something different in another, and sometimes the choices seem questionable or awkward. “The Brazilian imaginary,” for instance, appears repeatedly throughout the book, as a literal equivalent of the common phrase o imaginário brasileiro . But a more colloquial, less jargonistic version would be something like the “national memory” or “collective imagination.” In some later chapters, the phrase “collective memory” does appear. So why not be consistent?

The original Portuguese-language edition of Brazil: A Biography , published in 2015, ended in 1994, the year that Fernando Henrique Cardoso was elected president and a new currency, the real, was introduced. That year was chosen, the authors explain, because it “marked the final phase of democratization after the dictatorship” that had collapsed a decade earlier. Developments since then, they argue, more properly belong to the realm of current affairs because they are “yet to be fully felt and…mark the beginning of a new phase in the country’s history.” They wrote in 2015 that “history is the only resource Brazil can rely on to lend a future to the country’s past, and, for that reason, our history draws to a close here.”

But the American edition of Brazil: A Biography includes a welcome fifteen-page afterword, dated August 2017, that serves as a helpful guide to recent developments and takes the authors’ analysis past the point by which three consecutive popularly elected civilian presidents had each won two terms. This was a first in Brazilian history and a promising sign that democratic values were taking root. Other positive signs abounded during this twenty-year period: economic inequality began to lessen under Cardoso, a sociologist turned politician, and continued under the now-jailed Lula and Rousseff, his hand-picked successor. That brought the authors and their country to 2014, when everything began to fall apart and the scandal involving the theft of billions of dollars from Petrobras, the state oil company, and other government agencies came to light. Shortly before this, “a pervasive hatred directed towards politicians surfaced, and exploded,” they write, and the national mood over the past four years has shifted from perpetual optimism to unrelenting bitterness and unbridled anger.

“Operation Car Wash,” the investigation that uncovered the corruption, could be considered a triumph of accountability and the rule of law, though Schwarcz and Starling are skeptical, and complain that “routine procedures in adherence to the rule of law were used to serve interests contrary to the democratic values preserved in our institutions,” since such maneuvers were “justified by a congress whose members were in large part accused of corruption.” For the first time in Brazil’s history, a former head of state was convicted of crimes committed while in office, as were a recent president of the lower house of congress and numerous powerful and wealthy businessmen, who have been forced to return the financial rewards of their crimes. Prosecutors also seem to be closing in on other alleged offenders, including President Temer and the legion of elected officials implicated in the scandal who were decisively defeated in October’s election and will now lose their congressional immunity.

And yet, as the authors note, “although democracy has moved forward, the Republic has stayed on the drawing board. A republic is not only a political regime—it is the res publica : that which belongs to the public, that which is in the public domain, that which is in the common interest, as opposed to the interests of private parties.” The republic’s “greatest enemy is corruption,” they observed in 2015, before issuing a warning that now seems prophetic: “There is, however, a risk if the indignation over corruption becomes the raison d’être of political engagement. People could turn away from politics and participation in public life, which would lead to a loss in credibility of the democratic institutions.” With the victory of Jair Bolsonaro and the motley band of authoritarians, cranks, and grifters who surround him and are likely to compose his cabinet, that is exactly where Brazil finds itself late in 2018: profoundly disenchanted and once again expecting a messiah to put things right.

Whenever I am in Rio de Janeiro, I make it a point to stop by the Museum of Modern Art to look at my favorite work there: a 1972 collage by Wesley Duke Lee, a descendant of the Confederate sympathizers who fled to São Paulo after the American Civil War, many of whom brought their slaves with them. On the top half of a scratched and rusted metal plate is engraved the green and yellow Brazilian flag, with a faded group portrait at the center replacing the national motto “Order and Progress,” while the bottom half consists of a single phrase printed in large black letters: “ TODAY IS ALWAYS YESTERDAY .” That sentiment may well be true of just about any country—it was an American, William Faulkner, who wrote that “the past is never dead. It’s not even past”—but it seems especially applicable to Brazil, as Schwarcz and Starling make clear in their illuminating, engrossing, and consistently thoughtful book.

December 6, 2018

Saboteur in Chief

That Formal Feeling

Opioid Nation

Subscribe to our Newsletters

More by Larry Rohter

The writer Mário de Andrade advocated a lusty embrace of the indigenous elements of Brazilian culture.

October 5, 2023 issue

It remains a mystery why Miguel Ángel Asturias’s brilliant novel Mr. President remains less well known in the English-speaking world than the many novels it inspired.

May 25, 2023 issue

In Harsh Times , Mario Vargas Llosa grieves for the path Guatemala might have taken had the United States and the United Fruit Company not intervened in 1954 to overthrow the reformist president Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán.

February 23, 2023 issue

Larry Rohter was a correspondent in Brazil for Newsweek from 1977 to 1982 and for The New York Times from 1998 to 2008. Into the Amazon , his biography of the Brazilian explorer, scientist, statesman, and conservationist Cândido Rondon, was published in May. (October 2023)

Short Reviews

November 9, 1978 issue

“Toast by the Honorable Brent Scowcroft Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Beijing, December 9, 1989”

June 23, 2011 issue

Keeping Up With the News

January 18, 1990 issue

The Russians Have a Word for Dressing Up Reality

December 22, 1988 issue

May 3, 1973 issue

The Senator Giovanni Agnelli International Prize

March 17, 1988 issue

The Dirty War

May 14, 1998 issue

A Declaration of the Democratic Platform Group

March 29, 1990 issue

Subscribe and save 50%!

Get immediate access to the current issue and over 25,000 articles from the archives, plus the NYR App.

Already a subscriber? Sign in

Lilia M. Schwarcz

Heloisa m. starling, brazil: a biography.

Select a format:

Engrossing ... eye-opening ... an enormously refreshing treat

About the  authors

Sign up to the penguin newsletter.

By signing up, I confirm that I'm over 16. To find out what personal data we collect and how we use it, please visit our Privacy Policy

Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime Try Prime and start saving today with fast, free delivery

Amazon Prime includes:

Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.

• Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
• Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
• Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
• A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
• Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
• Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access

Important:  Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.

Buy new: $29.25

Return this item for free.

Free returns are available for the shipping address you chose. You can return the item for any reason in new and unused condition: no shipping charges

• Go to your orders and start the return
• Select the return method

Other Sellers on Amazon

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

Image Unavailable

• To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

Brazil: A Biography Paperback – October 31, 2019

Purchase options and add-ons

'Engrossing ... eye-opening ... an enormously refreshing treat' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times Since Europeans first reached Brazil in 1500 it has been an unfailing source of extraordinary fascination. More than any other part of the 'New World' it displayed both the greatest beauty and grandeur and witnessed scenes of the most terrible European ferocity. Its native people both revolutionized Europe's ideas of itself and were then subject to extermination. For white settlers Brazil's opportunities seemed endless, for imported black slaves it was a hell on earth. Brazil: A Biography, written by two of Brazil's leading historians and a bestseller in Brazil itself, is a remarkable attempt to convey the overwhelming diversity and challenges of this huge country - larger than the contiguous USA and still in some regions not fully mapped - from its origins to the twenty-first century. The book's major themes are the near-continuous battles to create both political institutions and social frameworks that would allow stable growth, legal norms and protection for all its citizens. Brazil's failure to achieve these except in the very short term has been tragic, but even in the 21st century it remains one of the world's great experiments - creative, harsh, unique and as compelling a story for its inhabitants as for outsiders.

• Print length 800 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Penguin
• Publication date October 31, 2019
• Dimensions 7.76 x 5.12 x 1.9 inches
• ISBN-10 0141976195
• ISBN-13 978-0141976198
• See all details

Frequently bought together

Similar items that may deliver to you quickly

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin (October 31, 2019)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 800 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0141976195
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0141976198
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.23 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.76 x 5.12 x 1.9 inches
• #462 in Brazilian History
• #2,323 in Caribbean & Latin American Politics
• #4,100 in History of Civilization & Culture

About the author

Lilia moritz schwarcz.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

• Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

Top reviews from other countries

• Amazon Newsletter
• About Amazon
• Accessibility
• Sustainability
• Press Center
• Investor Relations
• Amazon Devices
• Amazon Science
• Start Selling with Amazon
• Sell apps on Amazon
• Supply to Amazon
• Protect & Build Your Brand
• Become an Affiliate
• Become a Delivery Driver
• Start a Package Delivery Business
• Advertise Your Products
• Self-Publish with Us
• Host an Amazon Hub
• › See More Ways to Make Money
• Amazon Visa
• Amazon Store Card
• Amazon Secured Card
• Amazon Business Card
• Shop with Points
• Credit Card Marketplace
• Reload Your Balance
• Amazon Currency Converter
• Your Account
• Your Orders
• Shipping Rates & Policies
• Amazon Prime
• Returns & Replacements
• Manage Your Content and Devices
• Recalls and Product Safety Alerts
• Conditions of Use
• Privacy Notice
• Consumer Health Data Privacy Disclosure
• Your Ads Privacy Choices

• Search Menu
• Conflict, Security, and Defence
• East Asia and Pacific
• Energy and Environment
• Global Health and Development
• International History
• International Governance, Law, and Ethics
• International Relations Theory
• Middle East and North Africa
• Political Economy and Economics
• Russia and Eurasia
• Sub-Saharan Africa
• Advance Articles
• Editor's Choice
• Special Issues
• Virtual Issues
• Reading Lists
• Archive Collections
• Book Reviews
• Author Guidelines
• Submission Site
• Open Access
• Self-Archiving Policy
• About International Affairs
• About Chatham House
• Editorial Board
• Advertising & Corporate Services
• Journals Career Network
• Journals on Oxford Academic
• Books on Oxford Academic

Article Contents

• < Previous

Brazil: a biography

• Article contents
• Figures & tables
• Supplementary Data

Kai Michael Kenkel, Brazil: a biography, International Affairs , Volume 95, Issue 2, March 2019, Pages 509–510, https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiz030

• Permissions Icon Permissions

Examining the complex past of Brazil, which some commentators still persist in labelling the eternal country of tomorrow (the implied corollary being ‘but never today’), is a monumental task. Laying bare the effects of that past on the present day is especially important in light of the clash of visions for its future Brazil currently faces. In this tome of correspondingly monumental size, Lilia Schwarcz and Heloisa Starling are extraordinarily adept at drawing clear links between historical events and dynamics and their relevance in the present day.

From the supposedly peaceful conquest of the indigenous nations of the interior to putatively more benign practices of slavery (and enlightened motives for its abolition); from the roots of pervasive corruption and institutional fragility to the blatant farce of a racial democracy, the authors—two of Brazil's leading academic historians—set about consistently and convincingly debunking many of the historical myths, still taught in classrooms today, that underpin the comfortable existence of Brazilian elites. For example, they deconstruct Sérgio Buarque de Holanda's seminal notion of the Brazilian ‘cordial man’ ( homem cordial) in a manner that outlines its concrete consequences for present-day political culture: ‘the world “cordial” … [is] semantically linked to the Brazilian word for “heart” ( coração ) and to the supposition that, in Brazil, intimacy is the norm … revealing an extraordinary lack of commitment to the idea of the public good and a clear aversion to those in power’ (p. xxi).

Furthermore, the book's format makes it eminently accessible to a broader public. Abandoning dry historiography, this retelling of Brazil's past is true to its title: it is a biography of a protagonist named Brazil. As such, its self-consciously non-linear structure follows the vicissitudes and cross-influences that shape Brazil's national consciousness much as would an incisive biography of an individual. Political events, economic trends and social dynamics provide the book's backbone, but it is clear that Schwarcz and Starling take particular pleasure in giving full attention to the artistic expression generated by each distinct epoch in Brazil's history.

Brazil: a biography understandably does not strive to be exhaustive, and the authors’ well-reasoned selectivity does leave some lacunas. For example, International Relations scholars will note that the cost of focusing on Brazil as a protagonist means that the authors pay less attention to the international aspects of domestic trends. This is true, for example, in the book's treatment of the twentieth century, where the two world wars and the Cold War left deep traces in the DNA of Brazil's democratic institutions—acutely felt during the 2018 elections and their aftermath. On a lesser note, whereas the interplay of literature and music with politics permeates the work, sports—particularly football and its crucial role as an avenue of social mobility, national unity and foreign identity—are absent.

Scholars from outside Brazil will clearly note the book's break with traditional European accounts, and its sources are predominantly domestic. This is—and herein lies perhaps the greatest value added of the English translation—a book for Brazilians and by Brazilians. In an accessible manner, which has been preserved in the translation, it places Brazil and its people at its centre. This makes it a particularly welcome appearance in a market dominated by foreign-born and foreign-trained Brazilianists.

The tome's particular strength lies in providing a foundation for grasping the genesis of the disparities, exclusions, contradictions and, above all, the structural and physical violences that shape Brazilian society today. Schwarcz and Starling's treatment of slavery in the Brazilian context is particularly compelling, providing as it does the foundation for their understanding of the manner in which racial constructs continue to permeate the country's day-to-day life. Their sophisticated treatment of the extractive logic behind Brazil's founding era, while drawing clear lines to modern consequences as divergent as deforestation and authoritarianism, shies away from a full-on post-colonial perspective. Similarly, references to the status of women are not comprehensively entwined in a feminist framework.

This detracts in no way, however, from the book's challenge to the historical myths that provided the basis for continued iniquities in the present. This critical reading of Brazilian history should be required material from secondary school onwards in a country where historical consciousness—especially in forms that generate positive notions of belonging—is not only precarious and contested, but under threat from populism and the dismantlement of hard-fought protections for the historically disadvantaged. In the Anglophone sphere it is, for those interested in Brazil, a crucial voice, imbued with a combination of nuance, critique and ownership, and an uncanny ability to demonstrate in accessible terms the historical roots of both the positive and negative aspects of Brazilian society today.

Email alerts

Citing articles via.

• Recommend to Your Librarian
• Advertising and Corporate Services

Affiliations

• Online ISSN 1468-2346
• Print ISSN 0020-5850
• Copyright © 2024 The Royal Institute of International Affairs
• About Oxford Academic
• Publish journals with us
• University press partners
• What we publish
• New features  
• Open access
• Institutional account management
• Rights and permissions
• Get help with access
• Accessibility
• Advertising
• Media enquiries
• Oxford University Press
• Oxford Languages
• University of Oxford

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide

• Copyright © 2024 Oxford University Press
• Cookie settings
• Cookie policy
• Privacy policy
• Legal notice

This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Brazil: A Biography

Availability: in stock. Ships within 1 working day.

• Description

Brazil : a biography

By lilia moritz schwarcz.

• 0 Want to read
• 0 Currently reading
• 0 Have read

My Reading Lists:

Use this Work

Create a new list

My book notes.

My private notes about this edition:

Check nearby libraries

• Library.link

Buy this book

This edition doesn't have a description yet. Can you add one ?

Showing 1 featured edition. View all 1 editions?

Add another edition?

Book Details

Table of contents, edition notes.

Translation of: Brasil: uma biografia.

First published in Great Britain by Allen Lane, an imprint of Penquin Books, 2018,

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Translated from Portuguese.

Classifications

The physical object, community reviews (0).

• Created May 24, 2019
• 3 revisions

Wikipedia citation

Copy and paste this code into your Wikipedia page. Need help ?

Advertisement

Supported by

A Warhol Superstar, but Never a Star

Cynthia Carr’s compassionate biography chronicles the brief, poignant life of the transgender actress Candy Darling, whose “very existence was radical.”

• Share full article

By Alexandra Jacobs

• Barnes and Noble
• Books-A-Million

When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.

CANDY DARLING: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar, by Cynthia Carr

Never mind soup-can paintings and portraits of the famous — what Andy Warhol keeps on giving is books . He’s like Mother Ginger in “The Nutcracker” : Smaller people keep running out from under his capacious skirts to bow or curtsy.

The latest is Candy Darling, the transgender actress who succumbed to cancer at 29 in 1974 , after being immortalized in a famous photograph by Peter Hujar and in the Lou Reed song “ Walk on the Wild Side .” She had lived fast — indeed frequently on speed — died young, and left a mutable corpse, with considerable dissent among family and friends about whether she should be buried and eulogized as a man or a woman.

The first full-length biography of her, by Cynthia Carr, a longtime staff writer for The Village Voice — quite the Mother Ginger itself, of late — is compassionate and meticulous, reconstructing its brittle, gleaming subject as one might a broken Meissen figurine.

Born the day after Thanksgiving in 1944, Candy Darling was christened James Lawrence Slattery in Queens, soon moving to the ticky-tacky conformist hamlets of North Merrick and then Massapequa Park, Long Island, which she’d later euphemize as her “country home” but which was then an apparent cesspool of toxic masculinity.

Her father, John, was a cashier for the New York Racing Association who gambled, drank and was violent: the ultimate Daddy Dearest for a child with effeminate tendencies. Her mother, Terry, a receptionist and bank teller, was more supportive and loving — but still, hamstrung by shame. Candy’s half brother, Warren, babysat for her as a child but did not accept her as a woman.

As a child, “Jimmy,” as Candy was known then, was shunned socially and bullied terribly, once ushered onto a box and into a noose by two teenagers in a neighbor’s backyard. Understandably, she avoided regular school as much as possible; her education was in magazines, cosmetology and, of course, movies — she was a Kim Novak superfan, later emulating her.

She worked briefly at a beauty parlor, whose sympathetic owner she took on adventures like horseback riding. “We can always imagine we’re out in the wide-open spaces,” she said dreamily. “And if you imagine it strong enough, you will be.”

Like Ada Calhoun, the daughter of the art critic Peter Schjeldahl who took over his unfinished biography of the poet Frank O’Hara with sparkling results , Carr gets a boost from someone else’s abandoned legwork. Darling’s close friend Jeremiah Newton interviewed many of her intimates before they died — he features prominently in a 2011 documentary, “ Beautiful Darling ” — and shared copious photos, letters and the diaries that Darling began keeping at 13 (some previously published ). One is titled “The Worst Years of My Life.”

Carr spares us the ponderous establishing shots that weigh down many books of this genre. Though “Worst Years” covers the early ’60s, for example, the only mention of John F. Kennedy in Carr’s book comes via a fan taking a picture of Marilyn Monroe the night she sang for his birthday. Candy Darling was apolitical, the author writes — she had a wistful incandescence more than a “fire in the belly” (as Carr titled a previous book about the artist and AIDS activist David Wojnarowicz) — “yet her very existence was radical.”

She and the future Holly Woodlawn, another Warhol favorite, both toiled as file clerks and got out of the draft, Holly by showing up in hot pants and rouge; Candy by bursting into tears.

Stardom was Darling’s absolute raison d’être. You might argue that she was not only transgender but trans-era, longing to be a product and protectorate of the studio system. Alas, Warhol was no Louis B. Mayer, his films mostly art-house experiments — Carr is heroic at summarizing them — and when Darling finally gets to Los Angeles, for the premiere of his movie “ Women in Revolt ” (titled “Sex” at the time), the closest thing she gets to a break is broken promises from a drunk Ed McMahon needing roadside assistance. She does appear for about 15 seconds, uncredited, in the nightclub scene of “Klute, ” and for a while dated Roger Vadim.

Starring in Tennessee Williams’s late-career work “Small Craft Warnings” off Broadway was another high point — though even then neither the male nor the female actors wanted her in their dressing room, and she was consigned to a broom closet. She appeared in a Warhol-staged fashion show for Halston, but was only allowed to wear a maid’s costume.

Darling kept her chin up despite these humiliations, but again and again the rest of her body betrayed her. (Poverty and drugs didn’t help.) By 18, she’d lost almost a third of her teeth. She agonized about what she called “my flaw” — the pesky penis — but vacillated on what the publicist R. Couri Hay, one of those who eulogized her using the masculine pronoun, termed “the final cut.”

The massive quantities of unregulated female hormones she took, doctors and others thought, probably killed her — and yet dying young was in keeping with her fantasy of kinship to platinum-haired idols like Jean Harlow. Sardonic to the end, she joked that the presumed tumor hardening her belly was some kind of immaculate conception.

In a society ill equipped to accept her, Candy Darling’s short life was one of couch-surfing and cadging, which can make for some weird and grotty pages — oh, there’s a desiccated chicken under the bed. Many of those who remember her are unreliable narrators. But, as Carr notes: “All of them so delightful!” Bob Colacello, the O.G. Warhol chronicler, wrote that news of her fatal illness led to the only time he’d seen the artist cry.

There wasn’t really vocabulary to describe the territory Darling was exploring back then — maybe there’s too much vocabulary now, but that’s a different conversation — and her biographer extends a sure hand across the breach. To push her from the Warhol wings to center stage, at a moment when transgender rights are in roiling flux, just makes sense.

And you have to cheer when Tennessee Williams is asked by some rude person whether his star is a transsexual or a transvestite, and he roars back: “What a question to ask a lady!”

CANDY DARLING : Dreamer, Icon, Superstar | By Cynthia Carr | Farrar, Straus & Giroux | 432 pp. | $30

Alexandra Jacobs is a Times book critic and occasional features writer. She joined The Times in 2010. More about Alexandra Jacobs

Explore More in Books

Want to know about the best books to read and the latest news start here..

Stephen King, who has dominated horror fiction for decades , published his first novel, “Carrie,” in 1974. Margaret Atwood explains the book’s enduring appeal .

The actress Rebel Wilson, known for roles in the “Pitch Perfect” movies, gets vulnerable about her weight loss, sexuality and money  in her new memoir.

“City in Ruins” is the third novel in Don Winslow’s Danny Ryan trilogy and, he says, his last book. He’s retiring in part to invest more time into political activism .

​​Jonathan Haidt, the social psychologist and author of “The Anxious Generation,” is “wildly optimistic” about Gen Z. Here’s why .

Do you want to be a better reader?   Here’s some helpful advice to show you how to get the most out of your literary endeavor .

Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .

• Cast & crew

Back to Black

The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time.

• Sam Taylor-Johnson
• Matt Greenhalgh
• Marisa Abela
• Eddie Marsan
• Jack O'Connell
• 3 Critic reviews
• 55 Metascore

• Amy Winehouse

• Mitch Winehouse

• Blake Fielder-Civil

• Cynthia Winehouse

• Janis Winehouse

• Raye Cosbert

• Nick Shymansky

• A & R Manager

• Aunt Melody

• Perfume Paul

• Island Records Senior Executive

• CID Officer

• Uncle Harold

• Chris Taylor
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 2 minutes

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• See more gaps
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed

Packers set off on Tailgate Tour, with an eye on Brazil as well

GREEN BAY – The Green Bay Packers still are in the running to open the season in Brazil, but are unlikely to go to London this year.

The Philadelphia Eagles open the season on Sept. 6, a Friday, in São Paulo at Arena Corinthians, home to the Brazilian soccer team the SC Corinthians. The team that will play the Eagles has yet to be announced by the NFL. The Packers or the Cleveland Browns are reported to be the top choices. The Packers expect an announcement at any time.

"We are still in the running," Packers President and CEO Mark Murphy said Tuesday before the Packers Tailgate Tour bus departed Lambeau Field for southern Wisconsin. "I think we are either the first- or second-most popular team in Brazil. We are kind of the people's team. People really like the idea of a community-owned team. If we are chosen, we'll gladly go."

Teams designated for international games this year include the Eagles in Sao Paulo; the Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears and Jacksonville Jaguars in London; and the Carolina Panthers in Munich, Germany. The Packers have road games against the Eagles, Vikings, Bears and Jaguars. Divisional games are no longer automatically excluded, but Murphy said a London trip was not likely.

"I don't think that's a possibility," he said.

Packers Tailgate Tour will cover 500 miles in southern Wisconsin

The 500-mile tailgate tour, which includes current and former Packers players, plus Murphy, will continue through Saturday. Announced stops include Kenosha, Beloit, Platteville and Sun Prairie. Unannounced stops also will be made along the way.

Current players on the bus include Elgton Jenkins, Kenny Clark and Rasheed Walker. Former players include Bryan Bulaga, Mike Daniels and Alex Green. Jenkins was on the tour in 2023, as well.

"I had a lot of fun last year," Jenkins said. "I like interacting with kids."

The current and former players each said they were excited about the Packers' prospects this year. In 2023, the Packers, against expectations, finished with a 9-8 record, defeated the favored Dallas Cowboys in the playoffs and nearly defeated the San Francisco 49ers in the next round. They did defeat the Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs during the regular season. Last year was expected to be a rebuilding year for the Packers.

More: Could the Green Bay Packers open NFL season playing the Philadelphia Eagles in Brazil? There's a good chance

More: Packers Tailgate Tour, featuring current, former players, to visit southern Wisconsin

Jenkins said Packers players during the offseason are getting ready for the coming year. "We have to be ready to start fast," he said.

Rasheed Walker gets positive reviews from bus mates

Rasheed Walker, who finished last season as the starting left tackle, got positive comments from Jenkins and former Packers tackle Brian Bulaga, who said he was looking forward to spending time with him on the bus.

"I could always kind of put a couple pointers in his ear for him and pick his brain a little bit about how he's doing and what he's thinking out there," Bulaga said. "At the end of the season, when he finally won that job over, I thought he did a nice job."

The Packers like paring former and current players on the tour because it gives the veterans a chance to mentor the young players. Jenkins and Clark are seasoned pros, but Walker, in only his second season last year, is still finding his way.

"If you're an offensive lineman and you're a young guy and you're starting, you're expected to hold your weight. It doesn't matter if you're a rookie, it doesn't matter what year, you're expected to hold your weight and play well," said Bulaga, who was drafted in the first round in 2010, became a starting tackle during the season and played in the Super Bowl.

Daniels, Clark looking forward to new defensive scheme

Defensive lineman Mike Daniels, who played for the Packers from 2012-18, is on his first tailgate tour. A fan favorite in Green Bay, Daniels said he was excited to meet fans in other parts of the state.

"People who don't live around the stadium have a different appreciation when they see the guys in green and gold," he said.

Daniels and Clark said they both were excited to see what new defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley will bring to the team. They are looking forward to a more simplified scheme, which will allow players like Clark to take off.

"You might as well get Kenny Clark's Hall of Fame jacket ready now," Daniels said.

Clark said Hafley will challenge everybody to be great.

"I'm excited about (the new scheme) being more disruptive. That's better for me," Clark said. "It will give you that mentality to cut it loose."

Alex Green had a brief career, playing for Green Bay in 2011 and 2012, and the New York Jets in 2013, but that made him no less welcome as a Packers alumnus.

"You always hear, once a Packer, always a Packer," Green said.

Contact Richard Ryman at  [email protected] . Follow him on Twitter at  @RichRymanPG,  on Instagram at  @rrymanPG  or on Facebook at  www.facebook.com/RichardRymanPG .

James Bond’s creator lived a life to rival the spy’s

• Show more sharing options
• Copy Link URL Copied!

Book Review

Ian Fleming: The Complete Man

By Nicholas Shakespeare Harper: 864 pages, $45 If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org , whose fees support independent bookstores.

In Nicholas Shakespeare’s new biography of author Ian Fleming, James Bond arrives on the scene rather late. But there’s a good reason to delay focusing on the secret agent Fleming created: His life before Bond is far more interesting than what followed, and much of it would find its way into the books like “bullion,” Shakespeare writes, “to be cut into slices.”

Fleming didn’t publish “Casino Royale” — the novel that introduced Bond to the world — until 1953, when Fleming was 43. By that time, he had already lived multiple lives: as a war reporter, book collector, stockbroker, merchant banker, naval intelligence operative. Fleming may have been staring at a blank page in 1953, but his advance work was abundant: His own thrill-seeking life would become the raw material of his remunerative popular art.

Shakespeare, a British novelist and the author of a biography of English writer Bruce Chatwin, is the first Fleming biographer to get his hands on just about everything Fleming wrote, which helps to make this biography somehow both capacious and breathlessly entertaining. He does a fine job of clearing up some of the hazier myths about Fleming’s tenure in British naval intelligence, even while much of that documentation remains classified. The subtitle of “Ian Fleming: The Complete Man” is apt: This is certainly the most three-dimensional portrait of a complex man who gamely tried to shore up the postwar morale of his beloved England with his fictional hero at a time when the Empire desperately needed it.

The photo that wrapped Marlon Brando’s homoerotic swagger in a tight leather jacket

A new book traces how a gender-bending image from 1953’s ‘The Wild One’ resonated far beyond American gay subculture.

March 27, 2024

Ian Fleming was to the manner born. His grandfather Robert was one of the wealthiest merchant bankers in 19th century England. Fleming lost his father, Val, in World War I, which might have given his overbearing mother, Eve, sufficient leverage to gain control over her son’s life. It didn’t work out that way.

He was, for a time, her reclamation project: a dropout at Eton College and then a bust at Sandhurst Military Academy. He tried on a few mainstream white-collar jobs, but his short career as a stockbroker was mostly long lunches and minimal trade orders.

Fleming found his metier when Eve smoothed the way for him to work as a cub reporter at Reuters news service. As Shakespeare shows us time and again, Fleming was blessed with great timing. Dispatched to Stalin’s Russia in 1933 to cover a sensational corporate fraud trial whose docket included saboteurs and double agents, Fleming returned to England entranced with state secrets and the business of intelligence. The assignment changed the course of his life.

How 3 shades of jazz swirled together in 1959 to make ‘Kind of Blue’

James Kaplan’s triple biography weaves together ‘3 Shades of Blue’ in the backstories of Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Bill Evans at the height of jazz’s cultural sway.

March 8, 2024

Through his contacts, Fleming finagled an interview with Admiral John Godfrey, the head of Naval Intelligence Division, in the hopes of pivoting into a career as a spycatcher. Again, good timing: As it happened, Godfrey was looking for a factotum. Fleming was hired as Godfrey’s assistant, but he had his boss’ ear in short order, bursting with ideas on how to fool Germany into coughing up the secrets of its supply routes, its combat readiness, its imminent military offensives. For the division, Fleming became the man with the golden mind.

Rumors about Fleming’s war heroics have swirled since the author’s death in 1964; what’s remarkable is that, by Shakespeare’s estimation, most of those outlandish rumors seem to be true. Fleming did spy on German military leaders with cameras and microphones, among other skulduggery. He was not only a crucial conduit during the war between the Naval Intelligence Division and the Americans’ Office of Strategic Services but also, according to Shakespeare, helped to create the organizational template for what became the Central Intelligence Agency. Shakespeare credits Fleming, a “seductive and persuasive force who … could achieve things not always recorded on paper,” with selling the OSS on the British model of intelligence gathering, thus sowing the seeds for a crucial partnership that helped the allies win the war.

All this, and Fleming had yet to write Agent 007 into existence. But Bond was on a slow simmer. When Churchill invited ideas from naval intelligence as to how the British might contain Hitler in the Mediterranean, Fleming’s pitch was pure 007: Line a cave on the southern coast with thick cork for quiet, then throw a wireless radio and some men inside to monitor German ship movements.

In 1942, Fleming convinced Admiral Godfrey to give him his own assault unit, whose remit included capturing German state secrets before the Germans destroyed them. Now Fleming found himself in the center of the action, his dispatches providing crucial intel for the Allies’ most ambitious offensives, including the Normandy landings that liberated Western Europe. There was also contact with Bletchley Park and the great “Enigma Machine” codebreaker Alan Turing, but Fleming’s ideas for intelligence retrieval were either too dangerous or too absurd to contemplate. Fleming stored it all up for later use in his fiction, when he “would execute in modern form those plans which (he) had conceived against the Nazis.”

Somehow Fleming, this “war-winner” as Godfrey came to call him, made time for relationships. Unlike Bond, who treats women like beach towels to be discarded after use, Fleming found and lost love, a libertine always in search of more than sex. He cultivated female patrons; one such friend, Maud Russell, supplied the funds for Fleming to build his Goldeneye compound on Jamaica’s northern coast. His marriage was troubled; Ann Fleming was a social climber who hosted literary salons and spent Fleming’s money lavishly. But Ann was the spur for Fleming to write his first Bond book; she was confident her husband could produce something great.

What finally made Fleming pick up his pen? He was mourning the decline of the Empire after the war; it was crumbling away one territory at a time. He also was stunned by the revelation that two MI6 agents had defected in 1951 as Russian spies, that his beloved British intelligence had been breached by an enemy in the most humiliating fashion. The Crown was corroding; James Bond would restore the national character by dint of his total dominion over evil, defeating the Red Menace one ghastly villain at a time. If Fleming’s Navy blues no longer fit him, he would have Bond suit up as his proxy.

Despite the runaway success of “Casino Royale,” the James Bond movie franchise was slow to gestate. By the early 1960s, Fleming’s 70-cigarettes-a-day habit had caught up with him. He suffered a devastating heart attack while embroiled in a nasty plagiarism lawsuit. There was also the matter of gradually declining sales for the Bond books, to the point where Fleming was eager to kill off his hero and move on. But then President Kennedy told a Life magazine reporter that “From Russia, With Love” was one of his favorite books, and Fleming could no longer dispose of Bond even if he tried.

What came next was 27 films that have grossed more than $7 billion. Fleming lived long enough to see only two of the films produced.

Marc Weingarten is the author of “Thirsty: William Mulholland, California Water, and the Real Chinatown.”

More to Read

The canonized and vilified Capt. James Cook is ready for a reassessment

April 2, 2024

Espionage fiction writers pick their favorite fictional spies

Feb. 27, 2024

Pamela Salem, British actor who played James Bond secretary Miss Moneypenny, dies at 80

Feb. 23, 2024

A cure for the common opinion

Get thought-provoking perspectives with our weekly newsletter.

You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.

More From the Los Angeles Times

Lionel Shriver airs grievances by reimagining American society

April 8, 2024

How people of color carry the burden of untold stories

April 3, 2024

10 books to add to your reading list in April

April 1, 2024

How many lives can one author live? In new short stories, Amor Towles invites us along for the ride

March 29, 2024

• Manage Account

Amazon’s Bestselling Taylor Swift Biography Is On Sale for $5 & Makes the Perfect Gift for Swifties

Starting with her Pennsylvania roots to her rise to fame, learn about the singer-songwriter's journey to global success.

By Rylee Johnston

Rylee Johnston

• Share this article on Facebook
• Share this article on Twitter
• Share this article on Flipboard
• Share this article on Pinit
• + additional share options added
• Share this article on Reddit
• Share this article on Linkedin
• Share this article on Whatsapp
• Share this article on Email
• Print this article
• Share this article on Comment
• Share this article on Tumblr

All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

Taylor Swift

See latest videos, charts and news

4 Apple Watch Deals: Get Up to 50% Off for Hands-Free Talk, Text & Fitness Tracking

Trending on billboard.

Keep reading to to shop the book deal now.

“Who Is Taylor Swift?” by Kristen Anderson

Throughout 112 pages, Who Is Taylor Swift? details the Billboard Hot 100 chart topper’s life from growing up on a tree farm in Pennsylvania to her music reinvention and multiple award wins. You’ll also be able to look at illustrations of the singer by artist Gregory Copeland.

Fans new and seasoned can enjoy flipping through its pages; even verified Amazon reviewers can’t get enough of the book with one Swiftie commenting that they “still learned a few things [they] didn’t know.”

And, if you’re looking to further expand your merch collection, you can pick up a copy of Taylor Swift Mad Libs and a popular fashion book that details some of her most notable style moments. If you want to infuse some of her style into your closet, then you can also snag the exact Aupen purse she’s sported and more of her best outfits if you need some costume ideas to wear if you plan on getting tickets to the Eras tour .

For more product recommendations , check out our roundups of the best female musician memoirs , music books and Taylor Swift recommended books .

Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox

Want to know what everyone in the music business is talking about?

Get in the know on.

Billboard is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Billboard Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

optional screen reader

Charts expand charts menu.

• Billboard Hot 100™
• Billboard 200™
• Hits Of The World™
• TikTok Billboard Top 50
• Song Breaker
• Year-End Charts
• Decade-End Charts

Music Expand music menu

• R&B/Hip-Hop

Culture Expand culture menu

Media expand media menu, business expand business menu.

• Business News
• Record Labels
• View All Pro

Pro Tools Expand pro-tools menu

• Songwriters & Producers
• Artist Index
• Royalty Calculator
• Market Watch
• Industry Events Calendar

Billboard Español Expand billboard-espanol menu

• Cultura y Entretenimiento

INSIDER: Musk gets employees in Brazil to safe space to prep for data dump: ‘They have been told they will be arrested’

In a throwdown with a South American “dictator” over free speech, Elon Musk teased his next move once employees were […]

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

To continue viewing this content please join our BPR Insiders team! Insiders have access to BPR extras including special offers and free merchandise from We the People stores. If you're already a member, please log into your account to read this article.

• Recent Posts

• Illinois trustees furious scandalous ‘super mayor’ won’t resign hire Lori Lightfoot to investigate - April 9, 2024
• FBI caught lying about crime stats: ‘The entire Biden administration is a mirage’ - April 9, 2024
• INSIDER: Musk gets employees in Brazil to safe space to prep for data dump: ‘They have been told they will be arrested’ - April 9, 2024

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

BPR INSIDER COMMENTS

Scroll down for non-member comments or join our insider conversations by becoming a member . We'd love to have you!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Latest Articles

Get BPR Membership Perks!

Pick your exclusive BPR hat! Get 25% off of your future We The People wine orders! Plus so much more! Begin this journey with us today and get your first month for $1!

• job opportunities
• privacy policy
• DUMPSTER FIRE NEWS
• * NEW * WE THE PEOPLE WINE
• * NEW * WE THE PEOPLE STORE