Two broad interpretive studies of Brazilian history that give prominent attention to the political circumstances of mid-century are Raymundo Faoro, Os donos do poder, 2nd ed. (Porto Alegre and São Paulo, 1975), and Florestan Fernandes, A revolução burguesa no Brasil (Rio de Janeiro, 1975). Both are concerned with tracing the connection between social structure and political institutions and events. Both are heavily influenced by Weberian typologies, although Fernandes also includes a certain amount of Marxist thought in his scheme. Faoro stresses the emergence of a strong state bureaucracy allegedly victorious over the landed class, while Fernandes sees the seigneurial, supposedly status-oriented slave owners as dominating the state. Less ambitious and more mechanically Marxist is Nelson Werneck Sodré, História da burguesia brasileira (Rio de Janeiro, 1964). Caio Prado Júnior’s História econômica do Brasil, 5th ed. (São Paulo, 1959), is not so rigid as is Sodré in the economic interpretation of society and politics, but gives less attention to the nineteenth century. His Evolução política do Brasil (São Paulo, 1957) stresses the struggle between merchants and landowners for control of the state.

The first historian of the Empire, who still exerts great influence on our understanding of the period, was Joaquim Nabuco, whose biography of his father, Um estadista do império, 3rd ed. (Rio de Janeiro, 1975), first published in 1897–1900, dealt chronologically with politicians and political events without neglecting the larger social setting within which they acted. Nabuco’s conservative, pro-imperial point of view can be contrasted with the critical stance adopted in 1909 by Euclides da Cunha in A margem da história, 2nd ed. (Oporto, 1913); da Cunha felt much more clearly than Nabuco the Empire’s failure to change.