Technocrats and the Politics of Drought and Development in Twentieth-Century Brazil

“A novel interpretation of the politics of drought in the semiarid Northeast of Brazil. It details initiatives for and hindrances to the application of scientific and technological knowledge in order to confront the social and environmental impacts of drought. The research is meticulous, based on a voluminous bibliography as well as on institutional documentary sources. The author builds heavily on the social history of science in order to examine not only the initiatives to fight the droughts but also the geographic region of the Northeast and its inhabitants—the sertanejos—as a policy case.”—Isis Journal

“A sobering assessment of science’s limitations in solving deep-seated social problems, Buckley’s historical monograph is a must-read for students of public policy, environmental planning, and development economics in Latin America and the Global South.”—American Historical Review

“Eve Buckley’s innovative and eloquent book is a model study of how several generations of Brazilian experts sought, with limited success, to solve a chronic problem of development. Buckley weaves a nuanced picture of how the problems of development in Brazil’s Northeast were understood in different ways by the administrators in Rio de Janeiro, in the provincial capitals in the Northeast, and especially by the experts on the ground. The book also offers a vivid portrait of what ordinary Brazilians made of the development schemes supposedly designed for their benefit.” — Stuart McCook, University of Guelph

“Eve Buckley charts the successive deployments of engineers, agronomists, and economists tasked with solving the enduring problems of Brazil’s sertão in the past century. Exploring how these experts found themselves caught between the rural poor and powerful moneyed interests, Buckley highlights their frustrating recognition that they could not realize their dream of a scientific and politically neutral solution to water scarcity. The book makes important contributions across a range of fields, from Latin American studies to the histories of science, technology, and the environment.” — Thomas D. Rogers, Emory University