What do nineteenth-century fiction, early twentieth-century popular music, 1930s soccer, 1950s film comedy, 1960s experimental art and 1970s soap operas have in common with one another? Each reveal the deep patterns structuring social and cultural life in Rio de Janeiro. Bringing a fresh perspective to one of the most visited cities in South America, Bryan McCann explores each manifestation in turn, mining their depths and drawing connections between artistic movements and political and economic transitions. The book explores the centrality of slavery to every aspect of life in nineteenth century Rio and its long legacy through to the current day, illuminating both the city's grinding inequality and violence, as well as its triumphant cultural expressions. Rio de Janeiro is a unique and fascinating city, and through ten pivotal moments, McCann reveals its boundless creativity and contradictions, and shows how it has been continually remade by newcomers, strivers, and tricksters.

‘A lucid tour de force, full of illuminating detours. This brilliant book captures the multi-faceted city for newcomers and invites seasoned experts to rediscover it.’

Bruno Carvalho - author of Porous City: A Cultural History of Rio de Janeiro

‘Lyrically written, creatively conceived, and bound to fascinate readers at every level of familiarity with Rio, the book draws together ten moments that range from the recent and well-known to less visible moments from the more distant past.’

Benjamin A. Cowan - author of Moral Majorities across the Americas: Brazil, the United States, and the Creation of the Religious Right

‘A Black city torn between formality and informality, Rio de Janeiro is a vivid portrait of its cultural history. Through McCann’s compelling book, one can understand why Rio has for centuries reinvented itself at every corner.’

Pedro Meira Monteiro - Arthur W. Marks ’19 Professor of Spanish and Portuguese, Princeton University

‘Part of Cambridge’s Ten Moments That Shaped series, McCann’s contribution on Rio de Janeiro is a delightful, accessible, and unique work on Brazil … he provides a clear narrative that will be easily accessible to those new to Brazilian history while simultaneously providing original analysis and insights that will appeal to seasoned scholars of Brazil. His wide-ranging approach and events will interest not just historians but scholars of literature, art, music, cultural studies, sociology, and more … Highly recommended.’

C. M. Snider Source: Choice

‘At the heart of this elegantly and accessibly written book is an implicit question: How to tell the story of a city? … McCann meets the challenge here through his selection of ten thematic essays plus a substantive epilogue. To call the topics of these chapters ‘vignettes’ would not be quite right, as the phenomena on which he focuses are major developments in Rio’s nineteenth through twenty-first-century history, not picayune moments rescued from the archive or local lore. The author constructs a historical narrative through these loosely connected, chronologically organized essays that, remarkably, could equally serve as both a primer for a lay reader or undergraduate student and a reflection on how to conceive of urban history for specialist scholars.’

Amy Chazkel Source: Hispanic American Historical Review