The Prestes Column

“Jacob Blanc has established himself as one of the leading historians of Brazil of his generation, and in The Prestes Column he takes a genuinely fresh and innovative look at one of the most intriguing episodes in twentieth-century Latin American history. He has identified key issues raised by the history of the Prestes Column that no previous studies have explored, and he has adopted methodologies that will allow us to appreciate the full import of this movement.” - Barbara Weinstein, author of The Color of Modernity: São Paulo and the Making of Race and Nation in Brazil

“Visiting backroads long neglected by historians, and with keen attention to place and narrative, Jacob Blanc brings a much-needed critical eye to the iconic, mythologized Prestes Column. Asking hard why questions, Blanc reads Brazil from the inside out and provides a sophisticated framework for thinking about history, myth, and the many worlds that lie beyond Brazil’s coastal centers, whose own mythologies, Blanc shows, reflect and have taken shape in tandem with those of the interior.” - Marc A. Hertzman, author of Making Samba: A New History of Race and Music in Brazil

"An invaluable contribution to both Brazilian and English scholarship on the column, national mythmaking, and the Brazilian interior. . . . Blanc has written the definitive volume on the Prestes Column and its legacies." - Colin Snider, American Historical Review

"Much of the previous work written about this column has been romanticized, a critique Blanc... levels at Neil Macaulay’s classic study, The Prestes Column (1974). By contrast, Blanc's new contribution dissects this mythology, shearing away overblown narrative with informed research. . . . Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty." - R. M. Delson, Choice

"Blanc’s book includes excellent maps and images to help readers follow the column’s complex trajectory and the potentially dizzying perspectives surrounding it. . . . The Prestes Column, conveniently open access via OAPEN, is a welcome addition for senior undergraduate and graduate classes about Latin America and Public History." - Gillian McGillivray, Journal of Social History

“[An] outstanding history of this formative event.” - Gavin O'Toole, Latin American Review of Books