Publicado originalmente em:
PRADO, Eduardo. A ilusão americana. São Paulo: Livraria e Officinas Magalhães, 1917. 4.ed.
The editorial categories are research topics that have guided researchers during the recovery phase and continue to be the impetus behind the Documents Project’s digital archive and the Critical Documents book series. Developed by the project’s Editorial Board, each of the teams analyzed this framework and adapted it to their local contexts in developing their research objectives and work plans during the Recovery Phase. Learn more on the Editorial Framework page.
Hide
In this book by Paulo Prado, published two years after the ratification of the Brazilian constitution (1891)—which was based on the constitution of the United States—the writer responds to local Republican attempts to improve relations with the USA. To Prado, steeped in the values of the Brazilian Empire (1822–89), the country’s “total fraternization” with North America is “madness” considering the “absorbing, invasive, tyrannical diplomatic” policies of the United States. Prado condemns the Monroe Doctrine (proclaimed as part of the president’s annual address to the United States Congress in 1823), and underscores that U.S. international policies have never shown any benevolence whatsoever to any of the Latin American republics.
This is the first edition of the book by the writer and journalist Eduardo Prado (1860–1901), the founder of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. The entire print run was immediately confiscated by Floriano Peixoto’s administration in 1893, four years after the establishment of the Republic of Brazil. A committed monarchist and bitter enemy of the republic, Prado criticizes Latin American legislators who “boast” of copying the laws of other countries. He lists a number of disputes and military conflicts in the Americas to show that the vaunted “fraternity” of the United States toward Latin America was simply a “lie.”