Description
Using an impressive array of archival and documentary sources, Diacon chronicles the Rondon Commission's arduous construction of telegraph lines across more than eight hundred miles of the Amazon Basin; its exploration, surveying, and mapping of vast areas of northwest Brazil; and its implementation of policies governing relations between the Brazilian state and indigenous groups. He considers the importance of Positivist philosophy to Rondon's thought, and he highlights the Rondon Commission's significant public relations work on behalf of nation-building efforts. He reflects on the discussions-both contemporaneous and historiographical-that have made Rondon such a fundamental and controversial figure in Brazilian cultural history.
An analysis of the career of Candido Rondon providing an avenue to deconstruct recent Brazilian historiography on nation building, indigenous people, and state action
About the Author
Todd A. Diacon is Head of the History Department of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is the author of Millenarian Vision, Capitalist Reality: Brazil's Contestado Rebellion, 1912-1916, published by Duke University Press.
Reviews
"This amazing story of dedication and persistence elucidates the life project of one of Brazil's major figures of the early twentieth century. Rondon persevered against politicians in Rio as much as against the natural challenges of Brazil's vast interior, stoically suffering the demands of safari-loving Theodore Roosevelt in the meantime. Ironically, the telegraph lines he built, like his Positivist ideological beacon, were both out of date by the time he completed his work."-Thomas Holloway, University of California, Davis
"Stringing Together a Nation examines the life of one of the most fascinating, and debated, figures in modern Brazil, Candido Rondon, by melding traditional and new research approaches into an informal and clear narrative style of history. It brings to the English-speaking academic public a welcome deconstruction of recent Brazilian historiography on nation building, indigenous people, and state action. The research for Stringing Together a Nation is groundbreaking and brings to light archival materials that will change the way we understand how Brazilians discovered Brazil in the early decades of the twentieth century."-Jeffrey Lesser, author of Negotiating National Identity: Immigrants, Minorities, and the Struggle for Ethnicity in Brazil
Book Information
ISBN 9780822332497
Author Todd A. Diacon
Format Paperback
Page Count 248
Imprint Duke University Press
Publisher Duke University Press
Weight(grams) 345g