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The General History of Brazilian Civilization is an unparalleled collection in our intellectual output, covering the entire history of Brazil chronologically, with a high level of treatment, yet not indecipherable. It consists of an 11-volume collection, edited by Sérgio Buarque de Holanda (colonial and monarchical periods) and Boris Fausto (republican period). The work analyzes different areas of the country's historical formation, from the material organization of society to the forms of culture and thought.
The first two volumes were dedicated to the colonial period. Various experts study the process of Brazil's establishment and consolidation as a Portuguese colony, covering everything from economic and sociopolitical aspects to topics such as colonial medicine, baroque music, and scientific expeditions.
The monarchical period is covered in five volumes. It opens with an analysis of the conditions of Brazil's emancipation and concludes with the crisis of the monarchical regime and the transition to the Republic, in a now-classic volume written entirely by Sérgio Buarque de Holanda.
The republican period is chronologically divided into two periods: one before and one after 1930, a year of global crisis and revolution in Brazil. In these four volumes, different authors analyze everything from the process of establishing the so-called Old Republic to the complex social structures and relations that characterize Brazil in more recent years. At the same time, the volumes feature texts on cultural production, covering cinema, theater, popular music, and so on.
In the books that conclude each period, there is a bibliography and a summary chronology at the end. This highlights relevant events in Brazil and the world that serve as a reference point for the period in question.
The General History of Brazilian Civilization encompasses several generations of intellectuals, often expressing diverse viewpoints from different perspectives. The collection's organizers welcomed this diversity, seeking not only to inform the reader as broadly as possible but also to provide them with adequate tools for their own reflection. It was no coincidence that they discarded a triumphalist vision of our history (so far removed from reality), carried out by great figures capable of moving the world. It was also no coincidence that they set aside a historical vision in which a predetermined framework emerges and historical processes and human actions end up as pieces in a game whose outcome is known in advance.
The questions arise from the intersection between socioeconomic, cultural, and other factors and the possible choices of the human beings who make history. There is more than one answer to these questions, and the well-informed reader will certainly have their own.
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