When giving scholarly consideration to the rise and fall of the Brazilian economy over the past fifty or so years, it is vitally important of course to examine the economy in the context of government, politics, and the international economic climate. The reason for the great interest taken in the Brazilian economy is because it is the largest economy in Latin America and among the ten biggest in the world. Locating the information for a quality analysis of Brazil's economic history is not problematic; there is a wealth of solid material, including the Joseph A. Page book, The Brazilians, and numerous scholarly articles. .

             Page's book is presented in great detail, beginning with a realistic "Introducing Brazil" chapter (4-6) in which Page grimly describes how a once optimistic nation now is crime-ridden, so poverty-stricken that "the social fabric is tearing to shreds," with a "yawning chasm" separating "haves" from "have-nots." Economically, Brazil suffers from high inflation rates and still is coming to grips with the "relatively recent shift" from a "primarily rural to a primarily urban society." .

             Political sophistication and economic prosperity in Brazil, Page continues, was "stunted by two decades of military dictatorship (1964-1985)" and has a long history of "corruption." Indeed, Brazil is a "leasing producer of human misery," Page writes, as a Brazilian baby dies every six seconds from "a diarrhea-related disease." Every thirty minutes one Brazilian contracts leprosy and another Brazilian contracts tuberculosis, Page asserts. The misery goes on and on in this chapter, so clearly, the psychology of positive thinking has had a rough time gaining a foothold in a nation with so many social and political ills. On top of that, despite the image that many Americans have of Brazil as a liberated society in terms of social and personal mores and values Page insists Brazilians have extremely repressive attitudes about sex.