Royal Government in Colonial Brazil: with Special Reference to the Administration of the Marquis of Lavradio, Viceroy 1769-79

xxvii+545 pages with frontispiece, charts, tables, facsimiles, figures, maps, glossary, appendix, bibliography and index. Royal octavo (9 1/4" x 6 1/4") bound in original publisher's maroon cloth with gilt lettering spine. Association copy from the library of Dr Donald Worcester. First edition. This is the first detailed analysis in the English language of how Portugal governed Brazil when it was her most important colony. Although the book ranges from the sixteenth to the early nineteenth centuries, it focuses particularly on the late eighteenth century, when the controversial Marquis of Pombal dominated the Portuguese government at home and when one of his protégés, the second Marquis of Lavradio, served as the senior officer of the king in the colony. Although the author takes into account the contributions of previous scholars concerning the several themes that are interwoven throughout this study, he has relied especially upon eighteenth-century printed and manuscript materials, the latter drawn from several Brazilian archives, including the personal papers of the Marquis of Lavradio. Donald E. Worcester (1915-2003) was an American historian who specialized in Southwestern United States and Latin American history. He was president of the Western History Association from 1974-1975. Worcester graduated from Bard College in 1939. He received an M.A. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1941. He then served in the US Naval Reserve in World War II. He received a PhD. from Berkeley in 1947. From 1947 until 1963 he was a professor at the University of Florida. He then was a professor at Texas Christian University and history department chair. From 1960 until 1965 he was managing editor of the Hispanic American Historical Review. Worcester's view that history is made of complexities, not dualities, is seen as foundational for much of the understanding by later scholars of Southwest United States history. Condition; Worcester's signature to front end paper. Jacket light stain at back hinge else near fine in like jacket.