![]() My next encounter with Freyre was in Brazil when I traveled to the Northeast with my friend Chico Barbosa. But after my embarrassed introduction, he gave an excellent lecture in English (in his defense he was gracious to me). We had to retire to the dining room of an undergraduate residency. Perhaps because of my lowly academic status I bungled the effort to book a large enough auditorium for him. He was passing through New England when I was low on the faculty ladder at Harvard. The first time I met him was late in his career and early in mine. His only comment on my writing was once, in a newspaper interview, to refer to me-and my work as that of-a “mediocre sociologist.” Wrong discipline, but I appreciated the publicity. I, along with other readers, have spent many hours studying his work. ![]() His interpretation proved highly controversial in Brazil and elsewhere. Subsequent volumes brought them into subsequent decades. ![]() It introduced generations of Brazilians to their colonial past. Casa grande e senzala (1933) was an instant classic. ![]() He was a historian whose books had a worldwide readership. One of the first names I learned when I entered Brazilian history. ![]()
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