In this volume distinguished historian Kenneth Maxwell collects some of his most significant writings, following Portugal's imperial journey from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean and from the coast of Asia to the mouth of the Red Sea. Maxwell takes the reader on a lively journey from Macao to the Amazon forests-each piece in the collection is a reflection of the authors driving passions. Major themes he examines are: the peopling of the Americas, the shaking up of continents, the spirit that took a precocious Portugal into its imperial venture, the play between Portugal's' extensive imperial reach into Africa and Asia and the Americas, and the rise of Brazil and its tumultuous history.
Biography
Kenneth Maxwell holds the Nelson and David Rockefeller Chair in Inter-American Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and is the Western Hemisphere book reviewer for Foreign Affairs. Dr. Maxwell has taught at Yale, Princeton, and Columbia Universities and the University of Kansas. He was educated at Cambridge University and at Princeton.
"One of Maxwell's achievements in this volume of essays is to make his own and others' work on Luso-Brazilian history and civilization both interesting and accessible to general readers. But he has done more than this. He has also shown why Luso-Brazilian history matters, and how it can and should be more effectively integrated into the broader picture of the history of Europe and the wider world." -- The New York Review of Books
"Naked Tropics is the fruit of 40 years of transatlantic travels and study, exposing the reader to many facets of the Luso-Brazilian world and its most astute historical interpreter." -- Foreign Affairs
"In these pages we are in the hands of a guide who truly owns his field, and roams its expanses with easy authority and a genuine wonder at the ways of our world." -- From the foreword by Fouad Ajami, The Johns Hopkins University
"An extraordinary collection of essays by a historian in love. Ken Maxwell explores the seductive mysteries of the tropics - and of Brazil, in particular - with marvelous knowledge and a contagious passion. From the origins of chocolate to the legacy of Empire to the tragic fate of a grass-roots environmentalist, nothing escapes Maxwell's omnivorous attention, and nowhere does his beautiful clear prose fail to delight." -- Alma Guillermoprieto, Author of Samba and The Heart That Bleeds
"Original and distinguished and much more than the sum of its very considerable parts. A most impressive, enjoyable, and instructive collection." -- James Dunkerley, University of London
"Naked Tropics makes Brazil come alive without any dress or adornment save Ken Maxwell's wonderful writing, his extraordinary knowledge of the country and its history, and his contagious passion for its people and culture. Each of these sixteen essays is a gem that illuminates and entertains all at once. Must reading for anyone on the way to Brazil or just thinking about it." -- John H. Coatsworth, Harvard University
"This is lively history, made more readable by fascinating glimpses into the historian's own life and his passion for Brazil... more importantly, Maxwell always keeps a firm eye on the bigger picture... Maxwell outlines the issues faced by [President Luiz Inácio] Lula in a brilliant essay on the 1990's entitled 'The Two Brazils.'." -- Financial Times
