Promised Land

Using information gathered from more than one hundred interviews with farmers, activists, and church people in northern Brazil, the author shows how the present conflicts over land in the Amazon, as well as the destruction of the rainforest, are rooted in specific policies of the Military Government that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985, and how the effects of those policies continue to be felt. Presented here are six present-day case studies that not only give evidence of the direct links between peasant farmers' participation in grassroots church groups and their activism for land reform, but also, through rich local detail and quotes from the interviews, give a human face to sociological data.