To untangle, to iluminate and to advance

Abstract

The book Sobre o autoritarismo brasileiro, authored by Lilia Moritz Schwacz, brings a set of data, deep research and historic information to support an important present discussion. The authoress is insightful in the act of unraveling the reality by relating what we are living with previous points of our national history and, defining as central axis the authoritarianism, which reflects in several points discussed in the book, she reaffirms the relevance of the study of the past for the construction of a critical sense, necessary to foment the reflection about the realities experienced by certain groups of society. The book, short and straight to the point, takes the reader to flip through contents that can shed light on the tangles of the present thinking engineered during the construction of our nation, which complicates the comprehension of the forms of authoritarianism fixed in our economic, politic and social relations.