2.5 stars, but rounding up to 3 because I respect the sheer amount of work that must've went into writing this. I went into this not knowing much beyond a real surface history of Brazil, so this definitely filled in a lot of gaps. However, I really struggled to finish (almost gave up several times) because it is really repetitive and I think the translation was perhaps not the best (I was about ready to chuck the book after reading "above all else" for the 200th time!). This would've been much better with heavier editing and perhaps smoothing out the translation a bit. I don't know if I can wholeheartedly recommend this, but I think it provides a launching point for delving more into specific eras/topics in Brazilian history.