Brazilian Propaganda - by Nina Schneider (Paperback)

About the Book

Edition statement from table of contents.

Book Synopsis

In Brazilian Propaganda, Nina Schneider examines the various modes of official, and unofficial, propaganda used by an authoritarian regime. Such propaganda is commonly believed to be political, praising military figures and openly legitimizing state repression. However, Brazil's military dictatorship (1964-1985) launched seemingly apolitical official campaigns that were aesthetically appealing and ostensibly aimed to "enlighten" and "civilize." Some were produced as civilian-military collaborations and others were conducted by privately owned media, but undergirding them all was the theme of a country aspiring to become a developed nation. Focusing primarily on visual media, Schneider demonstrates how many short films of the period portrayed a society free from class and racial conflicts. These films espoused civic-mindedness while attempting to distract from atrocities perpetuated by the regime. Mining a rich trove of materials from the National Archives in Rio and conducting interviews with key propagandists, Schneider demonstrates the ambiguities of twentieth-century Brazilian propaganda. She also challenges the notion of a homogeneous military regime in Brazil, highlighting its fractures and competing forces. By analyzing the strategy, production, mechanisms, and meaning of these films and reconstructing their effects, she provides an alternative interpretation of the propagandists' intentions and a new framework for understanding this era in Brazil's history.

Review Quotes

"A formidable and genuine contribution to the study of the Brazilian dictatorship of 1964‒1985, a subject that has not yet been thoroughly explored even by Brazilian researchers."--Brasiliana "Revealing and timely. . . . Brazilian Propaganda asks questions largely overlooked during the nation's recent truth-seeking process."--Hispanic American Historical Review "A focused and rigorously analyzed study of . . . two government-run propaganda organs that produced short films, radio programs, and other propaganda material."--The Americas "Reveals a crisis of legitimacy that entangled public, private and government actors while provoking an aesthetic approach to propaganda that eschewed heavy-handed slogans and violent imagery for the utopian, optimistic and affective representations of the people."--Journal of Lusophone Studies "Informative, well researched, and thoughtful."--Bulletin of Latin American Research "Paints a comprehensive picture of how propaganda was produced under the military regime."--European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies "Schneider . . . consulted a rich number of primary and secondary sources and used multiple data-collection strategies--content analyses of film, of propaganda documents, and of Globo news, as well as interviews."--Journal of Interdisciplinary History "An excellent synthesis: well-written, originally researched, skillfully drawing on exclusive sources, and addressing a neglected but important realm of study."--Latin Americanist "A formidable and genuine contribution to the study of the Brazilian dictatorship of 1964--1985, a subject that has not yet been thoroughly explored even by Brazilian Researchers."--Journal for Brazilian Studies

About the Author

Nina Schneider is a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Konstanz.