| "Using
an impressive array of Brazilian primary and secondary sources and
placing her study within a larger theoretical context on the causes
of urban violence, Meade shows that Rio's development, like that of
many metropolises in the developing world . . . was planned. This
work draws on existing studies of Rio's development, but it does more
than merely complement those studies by explaining the lives of ordinary
people in spatial dimensions. An excellent resource for those interested
in Brazil and Rio de Janeiro during the Old Republic, and urban violence
in general."-Choice
"Meade takes a refreshing and provocative perspective that offers
substantial rewards to students of urban movements in general. .
. . Civilizing Rio should provoke a rethinking of urban politics
and movements."-Journal of Interdisciplinary History
"This lively and stimulating discussion of urban 'renewal' and
popular protest in Rio de Janeiro brings together several themes
of current interest, including the spatial and public-health dimensions
of social control, popular responses to new forms of state repression
and professional expertise, and class conflict beyond the workplace.
. . .[A]n important contribution to the social history of Latin
American cities."-Barbara Weinstein, SUNY at Stony Brook
"['Civilizing' Rio] is part of the new social history that emphasizes
crowds, popular resistance, and neighborhoods in the context of
social classes. The study supplies concrete historical data to test
world systems theories of how popular movements were affected by
the effect of world economic change and contributes an original
argument in the areas of urban and labor history. There is much
comparative discussion placing the study in the international context
of other third world areas such as Africa, Argentina, Mexico, as
well as Western Europe."-Timothy F. Harding, California State University,
Los Angeles
A massive urban renewal and public-health campaign in the first
decades of the nineteenth century transformed Brazil's capital into
a showcase of European architecture and public works. The renovation
of Rio, or "civilization" campaign, as the government called it,
widened streets, modernized the port, and improved sanitation, lighting,
and public transportation. These changes made life worse, not better,
for the majority of the city's residents, however; the laboring
poor could no longer afford to live in the downtown, and the public-health
plan did not extend to the peripheral areas where they were being
forced to move. Their resistance is the focus of Teresa Meade's
study.
Meade details how Rio grew according to the requirements of international
capital, which financed, planned, and oversaw the renewal-and how
local movements resisted these powerful, distant forces. She also
traces the popular rebellion that continued for more than twenty
years after the renovation ended in 1909, illustrating that community
protests are the major characteristic of political life in the modern
era. |
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