ISID congratulates Professor Jacob Blanc on his new book, "The Prestes Column"
Professor Jacob Blanc of the Institute for the Study of International Development and the Department of History has had a new book published with Duke University Press.聽 In The Prestes Column, Jacob Blanc offers a new interpretation of the legendary rebellion, in which a band of rebel officers and soldiers marched fifteen thousand miles through the vast interior regions of Brazil between 1924 and 1927. Blanc鈥檚 analysis of the Prestes Column is a showcase of what he calls 鈥渋nterior history.鈥� At a pivotal moment in national politics, the long march of the column came to embody the constructed duality of Brazil鈥檚 interior: a space that was seen by coastal elites as simultaneously backward鈥攊n relation to the more modern coast鈥攁nd dormant, an expanse of untapped potential waiting to be brought into the nation. Drawing on a range of materials, from officers鈥� memoirs and local eyewitness accounts to physical memorials and government archives, Blanc鈥檚 framework of interior history helps explain the column鈥檚 initial rise to fame and also its enduring legacy across the twentieth century, offering a new approach for the study of space and nation.
A Portuguese language version of the publication will come out later in 2024 with Editora UNESP.
