Abstract
This essay reviews the considerable historical production on colonial Brazil in the last twenty years. It notes that the various commemorations of the Columbus voyage, the discovery of Brazil, the abolition of slavery, and the transference of the court have resulted in a "boom" of publications and research guides. Over this period the historiographical trend has been from social to cultural history with influences from France, Italy, Portugal, and the United States particularly strong. The essay can not cover the full richness of recent historiographical production and thus concentrates on four principal themes. It notes the growing interest in the history of the Brazilian Indians, greatly influenced by modern anthropological studies; Afro-Brazilian culture and slavery which continues to be a major field of concentration; the cultural history of the colony with emphasis on mentalities, material culture, and dissidence; and finally a new return to the history of governance and administration that has profited greatly from the resurgence of early modern history in post-Salazar Portugal.