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E-book
Author Wolfe, Joel, 1960-

Title Autos and progress : the Brazilian search for modernity / Joel Wolfe
Published Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2010

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Description 1 online resource (x, 269 pages) : illustrations
Contents First cars : curiosities of the elite -- The coming of tropical modernity : automobiles and the question of nation -- Americanism and Fordism : the search for a Brazilian El Dorado -- Nationalist development : Getũlio Vargas and the integration of Brazil -- The multinational solution : Juscelino Kubitschek and the national auto industry -- From technocrats to democrats : automobility and citizenship -- Epilogue: Tropical modernity in a globalized space
Summary This work studies the automobile as both a tool and a cultural symbol of Brazil's status as a modern 'developed' nation. As such it addresses debates on state-making, the role of multi-national corporations in the region, middle-class consumerism, working-class politics, and much more
Autos and Progress studies the automobile as both a tool and a cultural symbol of Brazil's status as a modern "developed" nation. As such it addresses debates on state-making, the role of multi-national corporations in the region, middle-class consumerism, working-class politics, and sports and leisure in the crafting of national identity, among others. Such a study is key for understanding the twentieth century because auto-based transportation became the central facet of Brazilian attempts to gain control over its massive national space. The most obvious expressions of this include the building of BrasLlia to be the new, interior national capital, the extensive road building throughout the Amazon in the 1970s, the nation's development of one of the world's leading alternative fuel industries, Brazilian dominance in world Formula One racing, and the fact that the current president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is a former auto worker and trade union leader. This focus on Brazilians' fascination with automobiles and their reliance on auto production and consumption as keys to their economic and social transformation, explains how Brazil -- which enshrined its belief in science and technology in its national slogan of Order and Progress -- has differentiated itself from other Latin American nations. This embrace of automobility allowed the Brazilian elite to use industrialism and the increased mobility of an auto-based society to attempt to remake the nation's poor into a more homogeneous population. Autos and Progress engages key issues in the Brazil around the meaning and role of race in society and also addresses several classic debates in Brazilian studies about the nature of Brazil's great size and diversity and how they shaped state-making. Autos and Progress unifies Brazilian economics, politics, and culture in the twentieth century. It provides a unique historical context for understanding Brazilian modernism in politics and culture. Moreover, by analyzing the origins of auto-oriented industrialism and consumerism, the book is an economic, cultural and social history of Brazilian attempts to remake the nation into a middle-class democracy. This aspect of the study presents a new interpretation for the rise of Brazil's New Unionism, which was born in Brazil's auto, truck, and bus factories. It also provides important context for understanding the place of the Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers' Party) in national politics and culture, and the rise of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a former auto worker
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject Automobiles -- Social aspects -- Brazil -- History -- 20th century
Transportation, Automotive -- Social aspects -- Brazil -- History -- 20th century
Automobile industry and trade -- Brazil -- History -- 20th century
Social change -- Brazil -- History -- 20th century
Progress -- History -- 20th century
Nationalism -- Brazil -- History -- 20th century
Political culture -- Brazil -- History -- 20th century
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Industries -- Automobile Industry.
Automobile industry and trade
Automobiles -- Social aspects
Economic history
Nationalism
Political culture
Politics and government
Progress
Social change
Social conditions
Transportation, Automotive -- Social aspects
Kraftwagen
SUBJECT Brazil -- Social conditions -- 20th century
Brazil -- Economic conditions -- 20th century
Brazil -- Politics and government -- 20th century. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85016589
Subject Brazil
Brasilien
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780199721276
0199721270
9781282661264
1282661264
9786612661266
6612661267