A Poverty of Rights Citizenship and Inequality in Twentieth-Century Rio de Janeiro

"A Poverty of Rights tackles an elusive topic whose importance is difficult to exaggerate. Fischer confronts the subject in an intellectually honest way, and her research is astonishing in both breadth and depth. Her dialectical approach, expressed in the axiom that 'rights poverty emerged as a compromise rather than a defeat,' illuminates the subject matter as no binary approach could." - José C. Moya, University of California (Los Angeles and Barnard College) "Dr. Brodwyn Fischer has written a richly researched and innovative account of the 'impossibly paradoxical historical relationship between Rio de Janeiro's urban poor and the rule of law,' with a focus on 'the degree to which hope has coexisted with cynicism and the use of laws and rights has expanded in lockstep with vital informalities'. It is an exquisitely detailed and carefully crafted monograph that advances our understanding of key aspects of Brazil's urban life, law, and politics while shedding light on the discourses and practices of the 'frustratingly vague and heterogeneous social group' designated as the urban poor, the informal sectors, or the 'povão' (the really 'common people')." - SOCIAL HISTORY "One-sixth of humanity now lives in urban slums, and A Poverty of Rights offers pioneering insights into the political dimensions of urban poverty in Brazil and Latin America. Focusing on the political struggles of Rio's favelados, Fischer shows how slum dwellers' rising political consciousness motivated them to challenge their exclusion from formal politics. Their struggles resulted in conquests in both civic and property rights, despite the staying power of clientelism in Brazil's capital city." - Joseph L. Love, University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) "Few . . . have examined those excluded from the populist bargain in as sophisticated a way as Brodwyn Fisher does in her analysis of 'the connections between law, poverty and citizenship' in Brazil's then-capital of Rio de Janeiro." - Hendrik Kraay (H-Net Reviews) "Brodwyn Fischer's book will occupy a significant place at the intersection of studies of modern urban design patronage, and citizenship in Latin America." - Pablo Piccato (American Historical Review)