“Romo takes up the banner of regional studies while injecting new life into the genre. . . . Romo’s prose is clear and concise. . . . Historians as well as other social scientists, such as anthropologists, will find this work useful and rewarding. Recommended.” — CHOICE
“A well organized and clearly written book that adds to the extensive scholarship in the field and contributes to a better understanding of the intellectual discourses on race. . . . Succeeds in showing how the promotion of Bahia’s African roots was not only a project developed by people of African descent but part of a long process that was also embraced and sometimes led by white Bahian intellectual elites and U.S. scholars.” — The Americas
“A well-researched, well written and absorbing book….The answer to Romo’s concerns can be found in the very pages of her excellent book….Romo had already hit the nail on the head when she acknowledged, in the opening pages, that demography is not destiny.” — A Contrecorriente
“[This book] will provide students and professors with a depth and breadth of knowledge about intellectual and religious trends critical to the study of twentieth-century Brazil.” — Latin American Research Review
“Romo’s contribution is to elucidate the complex Bahian political and intellectual debate that resulted in the revalorization of Afro-Bahian culture.” — Canadian Journal of History
“It is an admirable contribution to Brazilian history, to discussions of historical memory, and to our understanding of the relationship between race and nation in the Atlantic world.” — American Historical Review
“An excellent intellectual and institutional history of mid-twentieth century ideas of race and culture in Bahia and the consequences for people of African descent.” — Hispanic American Historical Review
“Romo discovers new and interesting data sources that allow her to weave a consistent story that is strongly documented and supported by historical evidence. No one else, to my knowledge, has provided such richness of description and careful historical research in the context of Bahia’s cultural development.” — Edward E. Telles, Princeton University
“In her historical analysis of Bahia’s contemporary claim to embody the essence of Afro-Brazil, Anadelia Romo demonstrates the critical role played by local elites, foreign anthropologists, and state officials in promoting cultural images that have stymied redress of the deep-seated and racially-based socioeconomic inequalities in the region. This book will be of considerable interest to students of anthropology, history, and cultural studies.” — Seth Garfield, University of Texas at Austin
