In Migration and the Making of Industrial São Paulo, labour scholar Paulo Fontes provides an engaging history of Brazilian workers in the industrial suburb of São Miguel, São Paulo, from 1945 to 1966. Originally published in Portuguese (2009) and awarded the Thomas Skidmore Prize, the book brings together three issues critical to the understanding of Brazilian modern labour history: rural–urban migration, factory work and community formation. In his book, Fontes contributes to a labour historiography that looks beyond union struggles and addresses the complexity of workers’ personal and political experiences. This approach is also reflected in a careful and exhaustive research that includes archival sources from the main factory, Nitro Química, public archives, newspapers, migrants’ correspondence and 42 oral interviews with men and women who worked and lived in São Miguel.

The book is organised into five chapters, offering an accessible narrative that successfully untangles the relationship between the neighbourhood and the work place in a time of rapid transformation. The first chapter provides a detailed background on the process of migration from the northeast of Brazil to the city of São Paulo. This massive demographic shift, Fontes explains, was one of the most significant changes in post-war Brazil. More than 30 million Brazilians left the countryside, and the northeast was one of the most important sources of migrants. Placing the question of rural–urban migration at the centre of his analysis, Fontes demonstrates how dreams of work and social opportunities, as well as expectations of better rights, motivated northeasterners to travel to and settle in places like São Miguel. This chapter provides a clear understanding of the process and influence of migration in modern Brazil, raising critical questions about the need to re-examine the role of rural migrants in the formation of the urban working class in Latin America.

In the next chapter, Fontes focuses on the largest employer in São Miguel, Nitro Química. Nitro, as it was commonly called, became essential to the neighbourhood and imposed a schedule that affected everybody's lives. Work was hard and dangerous, and migrant workers developed a strong sense of camaraderie to help them adapt to and survive the demands of Brazilian's industrial experiment. But, as the author had already warned us in the introduction, São Miguel was not only a company town but also a town of migrants, and both forces profoundly influenced the development of the neighbourhood. By looking at the intersection of the working and living spaces, Fontes offers valuable insights into the study of industrial communities.

In Chapter 3, Fontes turns to the neighbourhood, the bairro, and reveals the importance of different forms of social networks. This is the best-accomplished chapter, one that also shows the depth of his research. In common with many new labour historians, Fontes looks at housing, non-working time and leisure as critical spaces of socialisation outside the factory. Building on his previous research, he provides insight into the role of amateur football clubs, movies, dances and local music venues. While soccer games were usually male spaces, other leisure activities incorporated women and provided opportunities to reproduce the cultural traditions of the northeast. However, the many problems that characterised the life of the urban underclass in Latin America such as poor urbanisation and lack of educational opportunities also plagued this neighbourhood. These urban challenges, Fontes argues, became integral part of a common identity and influenced the growth of neighbourhood organisations.

In the last two chapters, the author examines working people's political participation in São Miguel. As he states in the introduction, Fontes seeks to contribute to the ever-controversial discussion of populism by looking at workers’ everyday political experience and culture. In this industrial suburb, then, political participation and involvement mirrored national political changes. After the end of Estado Novo in 1945, a new political openness allowed for the growth of the Partido Comunista Brasileiro (Brazilian Communist Party, PCB). But, as in other Latin American countries entering the Cold War, the PCB was heavily repressed from 1947. The repression, influenced by Nitro's harsh policies and efforts to regain control over the labour force, was far-reaching and, police reports suggest, affected more than just political militants. The repression of the Communists also opened space for other, less radical political and social organisations including Catholic organisations and socialist and populist groups. In the last chapter, Fontes examines the role of popular organisations in the 1950s and early 1960s, showing their efforts to resolve social and urban demands such as the increase in the cost of living.

In sum, this is an outstanding book that enriches our understanding of the Latin American working class during the Cold War era. By bringing together analyses of urbanisation, industrialisation and migration, the author confirms the shift in Brazilian labour historiography. Added to this, the masterly incorporation of the voices of the many men and women who worked and lived in São Miguel provides a genuinely bottom-up approach and a rich social history. More importantly, the author critically examines these memories, contending how personal memories are always selective, marked by lived experiences and fears. The book also raises some questions for future labour studies: the influence of the Cold War, the need to place Brazilian history into larger transnational frameworks, and the urgency of more dialogue between scholars of Brazilian labour and of other Latin American issues.