Color of Modernity

In The Color of Modernity, Barbara Weinstein focuses on race, gender, and regionalism in the formation of national identities in Brazil; this focus allows her to explore how uneven patterns of economic development are consolidated and understood. Organized around two principal episodes-the 1932 Constitutionalist Revolution and 1954's IV Centenario, the quadricentennial of Sao Paulo's founding-this book shows how both elites and popular sectors in Sao Paulo embraced a regional identity that emphasized their European origins and aptitude for modernity and progress, attributes that became-and remain-associated with "e;whiteness."e; This racialized regionalism naturalized and reproduced regional inequalities, as Sao Paulo became synonymous with prosperity while Brazil's Northeast, a region plagued by drought and poverty, came to represent backwardness and Sao Paulo's racial "e;Other."e; This view of regional difference, Weinstein argues, led to development policies that exacerbated these inequalities and impeded democratization.