A Tropical Belle Epoque: Elite Culture and Society in Turn-Of-The-Century Rio de Janeiro

By Jeffrey D. Needell

Book Overview

This book, originally published in 1987, is a socio-cultural analysis of a tropical belle epoque: Rio de Janeiro between 1898 and 1914. It relates how the city's elite evolved from the semi-rural, slave-owning patriarchy of the coffee-port seat of a monarchy into an urbane, professional, rentier upper crust dominating the centre of a 'modernising' oligarchical republic. It explores such varied topics as architecture, literature, prostitution, urban reform, the family, secondary schools, and the salon. It evokes a milieu increasingly marked by Europe, demonstrating how French and English culture permeated the lives of elite members who adapted it to their needs and perspectives as a dominant stratum of relatively recent and varied origin. This exploration of cultural 'dependency' in a unique, cosmopolitan, fin-de-siecle urban culture will also interest those concerned with the broader questions of culture and colonialism during the high tide of European imperialism.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521126010
• ISBN13: 9780521126014
• Release Date: January 2010
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 372 Pages
• Weight: 1.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.5"