Introduction : a new power. Brazil's troubled rise -- The Brazilian way of life -- Part I. History from geography. The forging of a people -- From monarchy to coffee republic -- Getúlio Vargas and 'national developmentalism' -- The long dictatorship -- Part II. The making of democratic Brazil. From disorder to progress under Cardoso -- Lulismo and the Brazilian dream -- The long road to a middle-class society -- Oil, farming and the Amazon -- Brazil's guided capitalism -- Part III. Prospects. Global ambitions and frustrations -- An unreformed Leviathan -- Brazil's century?