Vale of Tears: Revisiting the Canudos Massacre in Northeastern Brazil, 1893-1897

I read this book on recommmendation by a friend. Athough the language is sophisticated, the book makes Brazil in the 1890s come alive. It made me want to go out and read Da Cunha's work, too. This book is masterful and compelling, and the story it tells is tragic.

Northeast Brazil has arguably inspired more fine writing than any other region in Latin America, & Levine's book continues this tradition. The Canudos episode has had two major previous chroniclers, first Da Cunha's classic eyewitness account "Rebellion in the Backlands," & Vargas Llosa's "War of the End of the World," familiar to US readers. Levine's scholarly history does not have the literary merit of its predecessors (though it's still quite readable). But it is analytically superior, because in documenting the historical background & religious orthodoxy of the Canudos community Levine reveals his subjects as well-rounded historical actors rather than incoherent fanatics. He thus restores the humanity of this tragic episode's victims, not least by showing how they exemplified millenarian patterns found elsewhere. The well-chosen illustrations make the book visually striking too. I would not hesitate to assign the paperback to advanced undergraduates. It is the definitive modern interpretation, & ultimately it will stimulate more research & revised perspectives. We cannot ask more of a good historian.