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Week 15: “Fifty Years’ Progress in Five”? Kubitschek, Brasília and inflation

Week 5 powerpoint: The collapse of democracy

Seminar Questions

  • Did Juschelino Kubitschek really achieve “fifty years’ progress in five”?
  • Should JK’s time in office be linked to the 1964 coup?
  • What does Sheldon Maram mean by the “politics of exuberance”?
  • What did Joao Goulart want to achieve and why did he fail to do so?
  • What role did the North-East play in politicians' and educators' reform plans in the 50s and early 60s? What was the view of the United States?
  • Why was Brazil so unstable between 1954 and 1964?
  • Had military intervention become inevitable by 1964?

Seminar Readings

•Skidmore, Brazil, chapter 6;

* Getúlio Vargas, “Suicide Letter,” in Levine (ed), The Brazil Reader, pp 222-24 [there are several short-loan and in-library copies available at the library]

•Sheldon Maram, “The Politics of Exuberance, 1956-1961,” Luso-Brazilian Review, 27:1 (1990), 31-45

•Andrew Kirkendall, “Entering History: Paulo Freire and the Politics of the Brazilian North-East, 1958-64,” Luso-Brazilian Review 41:1 (2004): 168-89.