Making race and nation : a comparison of South Africa, the United States, and Brazil /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Marx, Anthony W.
Imprint:Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Description:xviii, 390 p. ; 24 cm.
Language:English
Series:Cambridge studies in comparative politics
Subject:
Format: Print Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/2909038
Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:0521584558 (hardcover)
Notes:Includes bibliographical references (p. 351-380) and index.
Review by Choice Review

Marx (Columbia Univ.) has set himself a bold agenda: to explore the origins of racial behavior, its evolution to national preeminence, and the racial mobilization of the subordinated group or groups. The author compares South Africa, the US, and Brazil, the latter a kind of control group. Where warfare between Anglo and Boer and North and South was followed by the desire for economic growth, the means of reconciliation involved a common racial cause. Brazil, spared a divisive war, was more inclined to engender myths of racial democracy, something data and simple observation would disprove. Although his objectives are a little too basic and obvious, Marx has done an extraordinary job of buttressing his analysis with good history. While "early history and culture did not automatically determine the future," he concludes that modern economic and political history did. Moreover, "the state-led process of race making proves to be double-edged" given the retaliatory behavior by those discriminated against. Brazil's black population, in contrast, is still getting it together. A rich body of footnotes is included. Of interest to general readers and all academic libraries. E. M. Dew; Fairfield University

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review