In The Tribute of Blood Peter M. Beattie analyzes the transformation of army recruitment and service in Brazil between 1864 and 1945, using this history of common soldiers to examine nation building and the social history of Latin America’s largest nation. Tracing the army’s reliance on coercive recruitment to fill its lower ranks, Beattie shows how enlisted service became associated with criminality, perversion, and dishonor, as nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Brazilian officials rounded up the “dishonorable” poor—including petty criminals, vagrants, and “sodomites”—and forced them to serve as soldiers.
Beattie looks through sociological, anthropological, and historical lenses to analyze archival sources such as court-martial cases, parliamentary debates, published reports, and the memoirs and correspondence of soldiers and officers. Combining these materials with a colorful array of less traditional sources—such as song lyrics, slang, grammatical evidence, and tattoo analysis—he reveals how the need to reform military recruitment with a conscription lottery became increasingly apparent in the wake of the Paraguayan War of 1865–1870 and again during World War I. Because this crucial reform required more than changing the army’s institutional roles and the conditions of service, The Tribute of Blood is ultimately the story of how entrenched conceptions of manhood, honor, race, citizenship, and nation were transformed throughout Brazil.
Those interested in social, military, and South American history, state building and national identity, and the sociology of the poor will be enriched by this pathbreaking study.
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Author’s Note
- Abbreviations and Acronyms
- Introduction: Soldiers of Misfortune, Soldiers by Lot
- I Impressment, Penal Transportation, Defense, and Politics, 1549–1905
- 1. "Nabbing Time": The Heritage of Portugal’s Gunpowder Empire, 1549–1864
- 2. Raising the "Pagan Rabble": Wartime Impressment and the Crisis of Traditional Recruitment, 1864–1870
- 3. The "Law of the Minotaur"? Postwar Reformism and the Recruitment Law, 1870–1874
- 4. Whipping a Dead Letter: The 1874 Recruitment Law under the Empire, 1874–1889
- 5. ‘‘And One Calls This Misery a Republic?’’: The 1874 Recruitment Law under the Early Republic, 1889–1905
- II Soldiers, Their Lives, and the Army’s Institutional Roles,1850–1916
- 6. The Troop Trade and the Army as a Protopenal Institution inthe Age of Impressment, 1850–1916
- 7. Brazilian Soldiers and Enlisted Service in the Age of Impressment, 1870–1916
- 8. Days of Cachaça, Sodomy, and the Lash: Army Crime and Punishment in the Age of Impressment, 1870–1916
- III Implementing Conscription and Reorienting the Army’s Role, 1906–1945
- 9. "Tightening Screw" or "Admirable Filter"?: The 1908 Obligatory Military Service Law, 1906–1916
- 10. Making the Barracks a "House" and the Army a "Family": Assessing the Conscription Lottery, 1916–1945
- Conclusions: Army, Masculine Honor, Race, and Nation
- Appendix A: Military Crime Data
- Appendix B: Army Recruitment Data
- Appendix C: Populations of Public Disciplining Institutions
- Notes
- Glossary of Portuguese Terms
- Bibliography
- Index
Text
Àudio
Adobe DRM
Introduïu al vostre compte