Migration and the Making of Industrial São Paulo

"Paulo Fontes's excellent scholarship and strong narrative sense make Migration and the Making of Industrial São Paulo a book that should be widely read." - Jeffrey Lesser, author of Immigration, Ethnicity, and National Identity in Brazil, 1808 to the Present

"Paulo Fontes's work stands out as the best book in the current surge in research about the Brazilian working class. Fontes challenges the received wisdom of previous generations of scholars and presents an integrated study of the complex interactions of race, gender, social origins, and political processes among those who migrated to São Paulo. Migration and the Making of Industrial São Paulo makes for an enjoyable and accessible read for students and scholars of Brazilian history, modern Latin America, and labor history alike." - James N. Green, author of We Cannot Remain Silent: Opposition to the Brazilian Military Dictatorship in the United States

"Fontes offers an unprecedented closeup account of Brazil’s most crucial yet understudied mass movements of people: the migration of thousands of impoverished rural northeasterners to the country’s burgeoning industrial centers in the mid-20th century. . . . By centering the complexity of this important working population, Fontes contributes a fresh perspective on the vital processes of urbanization and labor activism that defined and continues to shape this crucial South American powerhouse. Highly recommended." - B. A. Lucero, Choice

"Migration and the Making of Industrial São Paulo offers critical tools for understanding not just the understudied period of migration it takes as its subject. It should encourage us to take seriously the continuation of the cycles of poverty, unemployment, and uneven development—often stratified along lines of class and race—that drive ordinary people to leave behind everything they have ever known in search of something better." - Baird Campbell, Cosmologics

"[T]his is an outstanding book that enriches our understanding of the Latin American working class during the Cold War era.... [T]he masterly incorporation of the voices of the many men and women who worked and lived in São Miguel provides a genuinely bottom-up approach and a rich social history." - Àngela Vergara, Journal of Latin American Studies

"A superb study of migration, adaptation, the interplay of ethnic and class identity, popular politics, and a particular pattern of postwar development in São Paulo. To begin with, the methodology is both solid and creative. . . . Its bottom-up approach, street-level perspective, and multi-faceted analysis enhances our understanding of issues usually discussed in the abstract." - José C. Moya, Canadian Journal of History

"More than a careful historiographic investigation of Sao Paulo from the 1940s to the 1960s, Migration and the Making of Industrial Sao Paulo is a solid theoretical-methodological construct, mandatory reading for those social scientists and intellectuals of diverse academic fields who wish to better acquaint themselves with Brazil and to investigate the vicissitudes and legacies of those who built the great cities of Latin America." - Nadya Araujo Guimaraes, Hispanic American Historical Review