“How can a book balance national and regional events in Latin America in the tumultuous period of the Cold War? Klein & Luna’s recent work on the Brazilian military regime provides an example of how to skillfully tackle this difficult task.” —Rafael R. Ioris, Journal of Social History
 

"Klein and Luna show that Brazil’s 'authoritarian development model' (1964-1985) was unique in southern South America in modernizing the tax system and expanding health and pension systems.  In fact, they argue that the Brazilian welfare state was largely created by the authoritarian Vargas regime (1930-1945) and the antipopulist military dictators from the 1960s to the 1980s." — Joseph Love, Professor Emeritus of History and Latin American & Caribbean Studies, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 

"This brief study of Brazil’s military regime, by two of the leading experts on recent Brazilian social and economic history, could not be timelier.  It offers the reader—including those new to the field—a clear and succinct picture of the many ways in which the military and its civilian allies transformed Brazilian society during their 21-year rule, while also indicating what changes were of a more regional or global character.  Though the authors acknowledge the repressive aspects of the regime, and the enduring inequalities it produced, Klein and Luna argue that the period of military rule was an era of unusually profound social changes—a point with which anyone interested in Brazil, past or present, must grapple." 

"Klein and Luna show that Brazil’s 'authoritarian development model' (1964-1985) was unique in southern South America in modernizing the tax system and expanding health and pension systems.  In fact, they argue that the Brazilian welfare state was largely created by the authoritarian Vargas regime (1930-1945) and the antipopulist military dictators from the 1960s to the 1980s." — Joseph Love, Professor Emeritus of History and Latin American & Caribbean Studies, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 

"This brief study of Brazil’s military regime, by two of the leading experts on recent Brazilian social and economic history, could not be timelier.  It offers the reader—including those new to the field—a clear and succinct picture of the many ways in which the military and its civilian allies transformed Brazilian society during their 21-year rule, while also indicating what changes were of a more regional or global character.  Though the authors acknowledge the repressive aspects of the regime, and the enduring inequalities it produced, Klein and Luna argue that the period of military rule was an era of unusually profound social changes—a point with which anyone interested in Brazil, past or present, must grapple."