The Legacy of Nelson Werneck Sodré

Nelson W. Sodré was one of the main Brazilian intellectuals of the last century, with a broad range of concerns—historical, economic, social, and cultural. Despite his focus on Brazilian history, Sodré’s work can also be regarded as having a broader interest for the so-called peripheral, neocolonial, or simply underdeveloped nations. Much of Sodré’s work can be considered an important cultural legacy and deserves to be revisited, given its ongoing relevance in many aspects, among them: his analysis of the nature of colonial economies and their superstructural manifestations; his effort to adapt Marxism to the study of colonial and neocolonial nations and his stress on the necessity of achieving intellectual independence in the periphery; and his definition of the “people†in Brazil. Despite limitations of some of Sodré’s research hypotheses, he will be remembered not only as a great Brazilian historian but also as a great example of struggles for social emancipation.