Introduction: Why Read About Brazil?. CHAPTER 1. BIRTH AND GROWTH OF COLONIAL BRAZIL: 1500-1750. The Country the Portuguese Created in the New World. The Colonial Economy and Society. Miscegenation: Biological and Cultural. The Beginnings of a Luso-Brazilian Culture. CHAPTER 2. CRISIS OF THE COLONIAL SYSTEM AND EMERGENCE OF AN INDEPENDENT BRAZIL: 1790-1830. The Economics and Politics of Post-1750 Brazil. The Portuguese Court Comes to Brazil. CHAPTER 3. REVOLT, CONSOLIDATION, AND WAR: 1830-1870. Uprisings under the Regency. Recentralization. The Role of Pedro II. The Rise of Coffee. The Emerging Problems with Slavery as an Institution. The Question of Abolition. The Paraguayan War. CHAPTER 4. MAKING BRAZIL "MODERN": 1870-1910. The End of the Empire. Coffee Fluctuations, Emerging Industry, and Urban Labor. CHAPTER 5. WORLD WAR I, THE GREAT DEPRESSION, AND DICTATORSHIP: 1910-1945. The Shock of World War I. New Currents in the 1920's. The Revolution of 1930. Getulio Vargas as Dictator. CHAPTER 6. DEMOCRACY UNDER VARGAS, HALCYON DAYS WITH KUBITSCHEK, AND A MILITARY COUP: 1945-1964. The 1945 Election and the Dutra Period Vargas Returns. A Socioeconomic Profile of Brazil in the Late 1940s and 1950s. A New President, Juscelino Kubitschek, Elected. The Brief Presidency of Janio Guadros. The Succession of Joao Goulart. CHAPTER 7. RULE OF THE MILITARY: 1964-1985. The Generals Search for a Political Base. The Arrival of the Guerrillas. Culture and the Generals. The Economic "Miracle" Wrought by the Authoritarians. The Road to Redemocratization. CHAPTER 8. REDEMOCRATIZATION; NEW HOPE, OLD PROBLEMS: 1985-. Sarney and His Challenges. The Debt Crisis and the Economy. Widening Gaps Between Rich and Poor. Public Health: The Fish That Swam Upstream. Changes Affecting Women. Race Relations. The Political Spectrum in the New Democracy. The Collor Debacle. Another Vice-President in Command. Back to Stabilization: The Plano Real. The Presidential Election of 1994. Epilogue. Suggestions for further Readings.