Includes bibliographical references and index.

Translated from the Portuguese.

A cartographic and statistical portrait of twentieth-century Brazil / Hervâe Thery -- Traces of the big house and the slave quarters: social transformation in rural Brazil during the twentieth century / Afrãanio Garcia, Moacir Palmeira -- Economic evolution and the international connection / Paulo Singer -- Brazil and the world / Celso Lafer -- Culture and society / Renato Ortiz -- From the patrimonial state to the managerial state / Luiz Carlos Bresser Pereira -- Political transition and the (un)rule of law in the republic / Paulo Sâergio Pinheiro -- Federalism and national identity / Aspâasia Camargo -- Amazonia: past progress and future prospects / Josâe Seixas Lourenðco -- The northeast: five hundred years of discoveries / Cristovam Buarque -- When the future arrives / Celso Furtado -- The challenges of the globalized economy / Gilberto Dupas -- Metropolises and the far west in the twenty-first century / Jorge Wilheim -- Quo Vadis, Brazil? / Ignacy Sachs.