New Books In Latin American Studies

Known around the world simply as Lula, Luis Inácio Lula da Silva was born in 1945 to illiterate parents who migrated to industrializing São Paulo. He learned to read at ten years of age, left school at fourteen, became a skilled metalworker, rose to union leadership, helped end a military dictatorship--and in 2003 became the thirty-fifth president of Brazil. During his administration, Lula led his country through reforms that lifted tens of millions out of poverty. In Lula and His Politics of Cunning: From Metalworker to President of Brazil (University of North Carolina Press, 2020), John D. French, one of the foremost historians of Brazil, provides the first critical biography of the leader whom even his political opponents see as strikingly charismatic, humorous, and endearing. Interweaving an intimate and colorful story of Lula's life--his love for home, soccer, factory floor, and union hall--with an analysis of large-scale forces, French argues that Lula was uniquely equipped to influence the authoritaria