“Well-written and engaging. . . [U]nlike a lot of ethnographies, this is not one that is dominated by the author’s voice. . . . [T]hroughout the book we get to hear from a wide variety of actors [and] . . . Ansell proves that he is a skilled ethnographer by the very fact that he can bring so many different voices to the table.”—Journal of Latin American Studies
“A must-read for anthropologists interested in processes of induced social change. It is also excellent for anyone wishing to learn about areas in the Brazilian northeast generally neglected in anthropological research and writing of the last three to four decades. . . . [S]uperb.”—Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology
“Offers fascinating insights into how top-down policies of social reform are appropriated and redefined by local stakeholders.”—American Anthropologist
“A welcome addition to the social science literature on rural northeastern Brazil.”—Hispanic American Historical Review
“A valuable contribution. . . . Ansell shows a deep understanding of the power of clientelistic relations and attitudes toward hunger in rural Brazil, which will make an evocative assignment for classes on Brazilian politics and culture, comparative social policies, Latin American politics and societies, or anthropology of welfare.”—Political and Legal Anthropology Review
“. . . [The author’s] review provide [the reader] with . . . theoretical perspective to capture, explore, and explain the most meaningful facets of the empirical reality examined.”—Anthropological Notebooks
“Highly recommended case study for multidisciplinary understanding of an important aspect of social structure in Brazil and other regions.”—CHOICE
”A vivid snapshot of the on-the-ground roll-out of what would later become—under the cash transfer Bolsa Família program—a model federal antipoverty effort. . . . Zero Hunger is remarkable for the various local-level angles it manages to describe with a mostly sympathetic eye.”—Latin American Politics and Society
“An important contribution to Latin American political studies. It is very much needed, as it deals with issues that are key to understanding so much of the other literature on Brazil’s Northeast, its voting power, and the shift of that power over the course of the Lula administration and into the present. In addition to being an important addition to the ethnographic literature on Brazil and Latin America more generally, the book will also be useful outside the field of anthropology. It will be a most welcome addition for both graduate and undergraduate classes in political science, sociology, and Latin American studies.” — Jan Hoffman French, University of Richmond
“Ansell explores how democracy and patronage are deeply entwined, rather than antithetical — this is one of the book’s most important theoretical discussions, and it is also a key point regarding Brazil today. This rich and well-wrought narrative is an example of superior ethnography which will be of great interest to specialists and a more general public alike.” — John Collins, Queens College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York
