for trying to appropriate the region’s
undiscovered riches. “It’s easy to fall
into this trap, because the majority
of Brazilians don’t really know the
Amazon,” he writes.
Such parochialism contrasts with
Brazil’s vibrant market economy.
Rohter freely admits to being infected by Brazil’s eternal optimism
about its future, but his tenacious reporting makes the best case for the
country’s economic ascendancy. Focusing on Brazil’s many scientific and
technological advances—in aviation,
biofuels and agriculture—is “one of
the best ways to put an end to the
still remnant notion that Brazil, as
De Gaulle once said in the 1960s, ‘isn’t
a serious country,’” he writes.
As befits its colloquial title,
Rohter’s book was written for Brazilians. Many of the original essays
are written in Portuguese, in a chatty
style. He writes that he considers the
country his second home, and, although he’s now based in New York,
distance seems to have given him
the opportunity to take a more insightful perspective. That should be
welcomed by his Brazilian audience,
since such authoritative reporting is
now, sadly, an endangered resource.
Space in U. S. newspapers devoted to
coverage of Latin America is disappearing faster than the shrinking
news hole for foreign news. Not even
Cuba placed among the top 10 countries dominating foreign coverage in
U. S. newspapers last year, according
to a study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. If the trend continues, Brazilians
as well as other Latin Americans may
soon find themselves lamenting the
loss of the nuanced, informed and
attentive reporting of their affairs
by journalists like Rohter—even if
it makes them mad.
first look
The best new and recent books on policy, economics
and business in the hemisphere.
fresh look
China in Latin America: The Whats and Wherefores
By R. Evan Ellis
Lynne Rienner Publishers, April 2009,
softcover and hardcover, 320 pages
The Effect of Treaties on Foreign Direct Investment
By Karl P. Sauvant and Lisa E. Sachs
Oxford University Press, February 2009, hardcover, 800 pages
Global California: Rising to the Cosmopolitan Challenge
By Abraham F. Lowenthal
Stanford University Press, March 2009, hardcover, 240 pages
In the Shadow of the Giant: The Americanization of
Modern Mexico
By Joseph Contreras
Rutgers University Press, January 2009, hardcover, 272 pages
Making Cities Work: Prospects and Policies for Urban
America
Edited by Robert P. Inman
Princeton University Press, January 2009, softcover, 378 pages
Mis economistas y su trastienda
By Fabián Estapé
Editorial Planeta, March 2009, hardcover, 495 pages
Reckoning: The Ends of War in Guatemala
By Diane M. Nelson
Duke University Press, January 2009, softcover, 440 pages
Seguridad: Alcances y Desafíos
By Hugo Palma
Centro Peruano de Estudios Internacionales,
February 2007, 385 pages
Joshua Goodman is a reporter for
Bloomberg News in Rio de Janeiro.
He previously worked for The Associated Press and Business Week in Colombia and Argentina.
Uneven Encounters: Making Race and Nation
in Brazil and the United States
By Micol Seigel
Duke University Press, March 2009,
hardcover and softcover, 392 pages
spring 2009
americas quarterly 107
