Afonso Arinos de Melo Franco and the fear of the rising of the "monster of the Brazilian lagoon"

Abstract

The article analyses the book Concept of Brazilian Civilization (1936), by Afonso Arinos de Melo Franco, in order to know the interpretation of the brazilian identity, the Brazil's image, construct by the elites of the 1930 years. He puts the confrontation between a civilized Brazil, white and european, against a primitif and wild Brazil. His book is a analyses of the past and a elitist political project and also a reference for the historical science of the period. Arinos is analysed here as political man and as historian.