Winner of the 1990 Choice Outstanding Academic Book Award.
A systematic account of Brazil's historical development from 1798 to 1852, this book analyses the process that brought the sprawling Portuguese colonies of the New World into the confines of a single nation-state.
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"The author's selection of materials from the vast stock of primary sources and his judicious reanalysis of conflicting interpretations are impressive. . . . All this is set forth shrewdly and insightfully. . . . An excellent monograph, well conceived and executed, of great value to the comparative study of the development of the nation-state in Africa and Asia as well as in Latin America."
—American Historical Review