The largest and most important country in Latin America, Brazil was the first to succumb to the military coups that struck that region in the 1960s and the early 1970s. In this authoritative study, Thomas E. Skidmore, one of America's leading experts on Latin America and, in particular, onBrazil, offers the first analysis of more than two decades of military rule, from the overthrow of Joao Goulart in 1964, to the return of democratic civilian government in 1985 with the presidency of Jose Sarney. A sequel to Skidmore's highly acclaimed Politics in Brazil, 1930-1964, this volume explores the