This important study “analyzes the…emergence of racially inclusive nationalisms” as dominant state narratives in Brazil and the United States between 1930 and 1945. Graham looks at how this shift occurred and the way that it related to concepts of democracy and to the relations between the two countries, especially during World War II. Graham refers to articulations of inclusive race-based nationalism as “racial democracy,” which she applies to both Brazil and the United States in this period (6–7). This study focuses almost entirely on political narrative and its relationship to the political and economic context of the time. Graham does not analyze the actual conditions related to race in either country but only the political narratives of the time and how they related to each country and to the war.
Both countries used these ideas to ward off charges of being undemocratic, though in different ways. The Brazilian narrative claimed...