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Gilberto Freyre. Circa 1975

Gilberto Freyre (March 15, 1900 – July 18, 1987) was a Brazilian author, professor, journalist and congressman. His best-known work was the 1933 sociological treatise Casa-Grande & Senzala (variously translated, but roughlyThe Masters and the Slaves, as on a traditional plantation).

He was born in Recife, Brazil, and studied in Baylor University (1918-1920) and Columbia University(1920-1922), where he earned his Master's degree in Political and Social Sciences with the dissertation "Social Life in Brazil in the Middle of the 19th Century"[1]. He returned into Brazil in 1922 and works in the Diário de Pernambuco. In 1927 he was named Cabinet Officer of the Governor Estácio de Albuquerque. But his political involvement led to his leaving the country for Portugal first, and then to United States in 1930. In Portugal he worked as translator and conceived the book that would became Casa-Grande & Senzala. In the same year he was invited to teach as Visiting Professor at Stanford University. Returning to Brazil, he wrote and published Casa-Grande & Senzala, which studies the development of Brazilian society from the influences of the Portuguese, Indians, and African slaves. The work is credited with exposing the Brazilian cultural heritage and providing a source of national pride. In 1968 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Münster.

In the 1930's, Freyre introduced the controversial idea of a "Brazilian racial democracy", in which he argued that the racial mixing that was looked down upon in Brazil was enriching the culture. He argued that it was not race that was creating social inequality, but that it was poverty that was degenerating men. He believed that the social classes in Brazil were based on economic disparities, and not racial differences.

• BRAZIL: an interpretation
• THE MASTERS and the slaves: a study in the development of brazilian civilization
• NEW world in the tropics: the culture of modern Brazil
• ORDER and Progress: Brazil from monarchy to republic.

• O Portal da História

• Joseph A. Page (1995), The Brazilians. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-201-44191-8.
• Gilberto Freyre Foundation - Gilberto Freyre´s Virtual Library - http://www.bvgf.fgf.org.br

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