Book overview
'In the best traditions of "history from below", Raquel Varela and Roberto della Santa restore two hundred years of class struggle in Portugal to where it belongs' Andy Durgan, historian and author of Volunteers for the Revolution
'A remarkable achievement - sweeping in scope, beautifully written, and politically alive on every page' Yassamine Mather, Middle East Centre, University of Oxford
'Forceful, vigorous, and passionate' Ricardo Antunes, Professor of Sociology at University of Campinas
A People's History of Portugal reconstructs the last two hundred years of class struggle in Portugal. Raquel Varela and Roberto della Santa examine the material conditions of its people - examining the real causes of the revolutionary waves and counter-revolutionary backlash.
Starting in the early nineteenth century, the theme of colonialism and its antithesis runs through the narrative, as working-class life was closely entwined with Portuguese colonial exploitation. Despite relatively slow industrial development, Portuguese people spearheaded a surprisingly vigorous radical culture of dissent, eventually sparking a social and political revolution in 1974. More recently, Portugal's inclusion in the European Union has put its people in a neoliberal stranglehold that stifles democracy to this day. Are the working people of Portugal able to carry the memory of the revolutionary past into its future? This is a history of, and for, the people.
Raquel Varela is a professor at New University of Lisbon, and Honorary Fellow at the International Institute for Social History. She is the author of A People's History of the Portuguese Revolution, A People's History of Europe, and the graphic novel Utopia, with Robson Villalba.
Roberto della Santa is an Integrated Researcher at the Open University of Lisbon, and Scientific Co-Coordinator of the OCVT/UNL. He is the co-author of The 25th of April Began in Africa, Working and Living in the 21st Century, and Global Labour Studies (in Portuguese).