Ana Lígia Silva Medeiros and Celina Soares d\'Araújo Maria: Vargas e os anos cinquenta. Bibliografia (Fundação Getúlio Vargas, 1983, n.p.s.) in Pp. 155

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Shorter Notices Ana Ligia Silva Medeiros and Maria Celina Soares d'Arauijo: Vargas e os anos cinquenta.Bibliografia(Fundamao Getulio Vargas, I983, n.p.s.) in Pp. I55.

The Centro de Pesquisa e Documentacao de Hist6ria Contemporanea do Brasil (CPDOC) of the Getuilio Vargas Foundation is now well regarded as the organization which has provided indispensable bibliographical and archival support for social scientists interested in the contemporary history of Brazil. The current bibliography covers the period of President Vargas' 'second' or constitutional government, 95 1-4, and complements both an earlier volume Bibliografiado tenentismo(1978) and a larger one A era Vargas (930o-4) shortly to be published by Brasilia University. The 1,o95 entries to the bibliography reflect the resources which CPDOC has at its disposal, and include North American doctoral dissertations and scholarly works emanating from various European institutions, in addition to the extensive pamphlet literature and memorabilia generated by this most controversial period of Brazil's history. The entries also reflect CPDOC's work in collecting tape recordings of the recollections of notable politicians of the I950S such as Juraci Maghalaes, and Jose Bonificio Lafayette de Andrada. Seen from the vantage point afforded by 1983, the last Vargas government holds a crucial place in national history. Growing difficulties on the external account were bearing down on a fractured political system which was striving to cope with a massive rise in expectations coming from many segments of national life. The bibliography, divided as it is into fourteen different categories, is necessarily dominated by the 410 items included under 'Economic policy and development', since both the government and its vociferous opposition in Congress produced numerous assessments of the current crises, while political economists such as Celso Furtado, Eugenio Gudim, Roberto Campos and Otavio Gouveia de Bulh6es were developing their ideas. The period has, of course, been studied fairly extensively by later generations of economists, who have found office in successive governments of the military regime which came to power in I964. Rising expectations are reflected by the 12 items devoted to 'party politics', the 113 devoted to the 'labour movement', the 68 concerned with 'populism and nationalism', the creation of Petrobras (i 19). The dramatic and far-ranging impact of Vargas' suicide is reflected in the 49 items recorded under that heading, while the aspirations of his successor can be charted in the 32 items devoted to the military, the 17 to nuclear energy, 22 to administrative reform and 53 to international relations. The authors of the bibliography have effectively culled such periodicals as the Cadernosdo nossotempoand Digesto economicoto produce an effective research tool. The bibliography is enhanced by photographs of the leading protagonists of the epoch as well as the inimitable political cartoons which were the indispensable accompaniment to a tumultuous, tense, yet often ill-understood period.

University of Southampton

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R. F. COLSON