The Rio De Janeiro Reader ─ History, Culture, Politics

Spanning a period of over 450 years, The Rio de Janeiro Reader traces the history, culture, and politics of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil through the voices, images, and experiences of those who have made the city's history. It outlines Rio's transformation from a hardscrabble colonial outpost and strategic port into an economic, cultural, and entertainment capital of the modern world. The volume contains a wealth of primary sources, many of which appear here in English for the first time. A mix of government documents, lyrics, journalism, speeches, ephemera, poems, maps, engravings, photographs, and other sources capture everything from the fantastical impressions of the first European arrivals to the complaints about rovingcapoeira gangs, and from sobering eyewitness accounts of slavery's brutality to the glitz of Copacabana. The definitive English language resource on the city,The Rio de Janeiro Reader presents the "Marvelous City" in all its complexity, importance, and intrigue.

Daryle Williams is Associate Professor of History at the University of Maryland and the author ofCulture Wars in Brazil: The First Vargas Regime, 1930–1945, also published by Duke University Press.

Amy Chazkel is Associate Professor of History at the City University of New York, Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center, and the author ofLaws of Chance: Brazil's Clandestine Lottery and the Making of Urban Public Life, also published by Duke University Press.

Paulo Knauss is Professor of History at Universidade Federal Fluminense (Niteroi, Brazil) and the author ofRio de Janeiro da pacificacao: franceses e portugueses na disputa colonial.