James N. Green

This project explores changes in Brazilian society during the military regime (1964-85) and the next decade through a biography of Herbert Daniel: guerrilla leader, political exile, and spokesperson for people with AIDS. Most histories offer heroic visions of those who resisted military rule without examining contradictions in leftwing political culture. This project argues that the left conformed to hegemonic notions of morality, gender, and sexuality through constructions of revolutionary masculinity that precluded same-sex desire or gender transgression. Using interviews, archives, and memoirs, it examines ways international trends—from Marxism to the counterculture—interacted with national political, social, and cultural values. It also reconsiders how scholars have produced histories of this period.