This course examines society, the state, and popular politics in the Peoples' Republic of China from 1949 to the present. Brazil is one of the world's largest nations being inferior in territorial size only to the United States, Russia and China. With more than 150,000,000 people, Brazil is second in population among western hemisphere nations to the United States, and far larger than any Latin American nation. Brazilians can claim national unity solidly based on a common language and common cultural heritage. Brazilians are descended of native Americans, Africans and Europeans, but can claim a recent history relatively free of ethnic or racial strife.
Brazil is rich in natural resources, and has one of the world's few natural resource frontiers.
Finally, Brazil continues to produce outstanding architects, artists, writers, composers, social scientists and legal intellectuals, religious and political leaders, entreprenuers and athletes. At the same time, persistant problems block Brazilian development. They include widespread racism and class bias, excessive dependence on foreign capital and technology, a shamefully inadequate public school system, a perverse distribution of income that favors the wealthy, and fragile democratic institutions. After 500 years of history, Brazilians have immense tasks before them, while the promise of national greatness remains unfulfilled. Topics include indigenous social formations, the period of Chinese domination, the rise of independent Vietnamese dynasties, the French colonial era, the Vietnamese Revolution, and the three Indochina Wars, including the Vietnam Conflict in the twentieth century.