![]() ![]() ![]() The result, Buarque de Holanda claims- and it remains difficult to argue the contrary-is a nation where personal, affective relationships always trump abstract political, religious, or moral principles. The book is best known for its fifth chapter, presenting the author’s theory of the Brazilian as “the Cordial Man,”-“cordial” not in the sense of gracious, but in the deeper etymological sense of being ruled by the heart and emotion, and basing all decisions and affinities on the “ethos of emotion” (p. ![]() Reading this edition is itself an exercise in intellectual history. The result is a rich, layered work of commentary and annotation. This excellent edition includes not only a lively translation of the original, but also the author’s prefaces to both the second and third editions of 19, literary scholar Antonio Candido’s limpid introduction to the 1967 edition and his postscript to the 1987 edition, and Pedro Meira Monteiro’s new foreword. While that universality is no longer assumed, the book remains a key work for historians, and indeed for all those interested in probing the formation of the Brazilian mind. For decades, it was one of the books every well-educated Brazilian could be presumed to have read. Originally published as Raízes do Brasil in 1936, this is an enduring touchstone of Brazilian cultural history. At long last, this classic appears in an English translation. ![]()
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