Empires that bleed -- Capitalism, slavery on imperial hinterlands -- Between war and peace -- The wealth of empires -- Spanish secessions -- Brazilian counterpoints -- Dissolutions of the Spanish Atlantic -- Crossing the Rubicon -- Revolution and sovereignty

"James P. Woodard's history of capitalism in Brazil, today the world's fifth most populous country, is at once magisterial, intimate, and penetrating enough to serve as a history of modern Brazil itself. It tells how a modernizing consumer culture and a new economic outlook took hold over the...