The two most populous American countries are founded on historical narratives of exceptionalism: the United States, founded on individual democratic rights and social mobility, and Brazil, founded on paternalism and the relative lack of those rights and mobility (242). Such exceptionalism, the authors note, has “discouraged comparisons, dialogues and transnational approaches” between them, even though enslavement, racism, mass immigration, and rapid urbanization shaped both histories (1–2). As with earlier comparative analyses of slavery and racial thought, this volume brings similar energies to studying labor and the twentieth century. Nine Brazilian and US historians offer comparative and transnational histories of workers aiming to integrate Brazilian and US experiences of work and foreground new historical sources. Methodologically, they move beyond emphasizing contrasts to analyze “circulation, interaction, and mutual influence” (242).

Chronologically focused on 1930–70, earlier chapters analyze Italian immigration and feminist organizing. The second part includes chapters on New Deal corporatism and politics, US views of Brazil during World War II (WWII), and labor and Brazilian foreign policy during WWII. The last three chapters move to the Cold War, analyzing US historian Robert Alexander’s views of Brazilian unionism, the role of doormen in individualizing Brazilian segregation, and US views of Brazil’s northeastern sugar zone.