Before the Flood

"The colossal Itaipu Dam at the Brazil-Paraguay border may well be the most enduring monument to the ambitions of Brazil's twenty-one-year military dictatorship. And, as Jacob Blanc incisively argues in Before the Flood, its construction also formed part of a longer history of predation, with the spectacular visibility of Itaipu being premised on the invisibility of the region's agrarian population. This remarkable study not only rescues the displaced rural people from oblivion but reveals how their political struggles contributed to the ongoing efforts for a more equitable and dignified way of life in the Brazilian countryside.” - Barbara Weinstein, author of The Color of Modernity: São Paulo and the Making of Race and Nation in Brazil

“During the waning years of military rule, tens of thousands of rural Brazilians were permanently displaced from their homes near the Paraguayan border by the Itaipu hydroelectric dam in the name of energy development and binational cooperation. Jacob Blanc's illuminating study traces the diverse historical paths of the affected communities to hierarchies of landholding patterns, cultural capital, and political visibility. In the process, he deftly explores the political dividends and divides that marked rural social movements' struggles for democratic inclusion in the Brazilian countryside.” - Seth Garfield, author of In Search of the Amazon: Brazil, the United States, and the Nature of a Region

“… Before the Flood makes a welcome and timely contribution to our understanding of large dam politics and of rural empowerment. Blanc’s arguments are interesting, intricate, and convincing.”

“Before the Flood ... makes important contributions to studies of the Brazilian dictatorship, Latin American democratization, and the global ‘concrete revolution’ of the twentieth century. It holds its own in the growing ranks of important books in the historiography of modern Latin America that combine analyses of land and labor, merging environmental history with histories of grassroots social movements. The book’s interventionist ambitions and organizational structure make it an excellent choice for advanced undergraduate and graduate seminars.” - Timothy Lorek, H-LatAm, H-Net Reviews

“A pleasure to read, this book illuminates forces of power and protest mobilized against a useful but predatory, and thus unsustainable, form of green-energy infrastructure—the hydroelectric dam…. Blanc’s fascinating and illuminating book is itself a form of protest, a scholarly performance that makes the hinterlands visible and the complications of history readable.” - Stephanie C. Kane, Journal of Interdisciplinary History

“[Blanc’s] source base is impressive, drawing from oral history interviews, state archives in Brazil and Paraguay, and—most innovatively—the records of the Itaipú Binational itself....  The result is a fine piece of scholarship with demonstrated value for classroom use.” - Michael Huner, The Americas

“Jacob Blanc's book is flavorful, enjoyable and thought-provoking…. It brings to light a founding and fundamental trait of the national imagination in Brazil that does not present itself in speeches and books, but reveals itself in silences and denial.” [Translated from Portuguese] - Paulo Henrique Martinez, Hispanic American Historical Review

"Blanc’s compelling social history of the rural experiences of Itaipu’s flooding also makes a very important contribution to energy studies. … By situating these peoples as actors and not just collateral costs of development, Before the Flood expands the limits of a growing field in an exciting way."