Abstract
This book examines the experiences of São Paulo’s diverse working class as they encountered rapid urbanization and industrialization brought on by the coffee boom during Brazil’s Old Republic (1891–1930). It places the rank-and-file at the center of its analysis to understand how macroeconomic trends connected to daily life and individual and family responses to labor market discrimination, inflation, and fluctuating (im)migration. The study emphasizes the family-centered nature of immigration to São Paulo in comparison to other immigrant cities like Buenos Aires and New York City. It shows how World War I exacerbated existing working-class hierarchies and cut short important standard-of-living advancements. The study demonstrates how despite its intended purpose to funnel agricultural laborers into the coffee interior, the city’s immigrant receiving station also played a decisive role in shaping the city of São Paulo, serving both as a safety net for residents and labor supplier for employers. Methodologically, this book embraces both social and economic history, deconstructing the population along racial, ethnic, national, and gender lines. Combining statistical analysis alongside close readings of immigrant letters provides a nuanced analysis of recently arrived Paulistanos from Italy, Portugal, Germany, Lebanon, and Japan and from northeastern Brazil. The research demonstrates how Portuguese, women, and Afro-Brazilians all faced significant labor market discrimination, impacting individual and family decisions about where to work and live and whether to join labor movements. The approach provides a powerful tool to address archival silences, recover embedded narratives, and understand historic underdevelopment.
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