Sixteen essays by an eminent scholar, Kenneth Maxwell, cover chocolate, pirates, the Amazon and Thomas Jefferson, and in the process draw a nuanced portrait of Brazil. It’s a work of history first and foremost, with essays on forgotten episodes and personalities. These are fascinating and readable, but most importantly, they are done always with the big picture in mind – why is Brazil, colonized by Portugal, so different from its neighbors, colonized by Spain? (Indeed one essay goes there directly: “Why was Brazil Different?”) The book has enough anecdote to keep the reading lively and enough insight to satisfy to the country analyst.