LulaFrontCover.JPGA New Biography of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil's Immensely Popular Worker President,

 
Raised in a shack in the Brazilian northeast by a single mother, Lula da Silva rose from a working-class background to become a union leader, organizer of Brazil’s Workers’ Party, and, in time, the most popular president in Brazilian history.  In admiration, Barack Obama called Lula “the most popular politician on Earth” – perhaps a fitting title for a man who finished eight years as Brazil’s president with popularity ratings over 80%.  As president, he rose above ideology to build his country’s self-esteem with a growing economy and relief from poverty.  This is the first full biography of a democratic leader whose remarkable success will be an inspiration for decades to come. 

Spanning his childhood, his years in the labor movement, his four campaigns for the presidency, his two presidential terms and the election of his successor, Dilma Rousseff, this volume focuses on Lula as a personality and explores his impact on Brazilian Society.  Elected on an ill-defined platform of “change,” Lula’s inaugural address promised that hope had conquered fear and that it was time for Brazil to blaze a new path.  However, he understood that what most Brazilians actually wanted was relief from stressful and demanding changes.  Drawing strength from his mother’s courage, optimism and religious faith, Lula forged a new leadership style emphasizing consensus and contrasting sharply with that of many populist Latin American leaders.

Lula offers a model of leadership for an age when democratic revolutions sweep the globe and presidents-for-life are thrown out in disgrace.  Despite his overwhelming popularity, Lula refused to allow his supporters to attempt to amend the Brazilian constitution to allow him a third term as president.  His biography is essential reading for anyone concerned with building democratic order in a developing society.

The author, Ted G. Goertzel, Ph.D., is professor of sociology at Rutgers University.  His published books include Turncoats and True Believers, Linus Pauling:  A Life in Science and Politics, 300 Eminent Personalities, Cradles of Eminence and Fernando Henrique Cardoso:  Reinventing Democracy in Brazil (also published as Fernando Henrique Cardoso e a reconstrução da democracia no Brazil). 


Published by BrownWalker Press.   224 pages -  Paper $26.95.   pdf format, $22.00.  Available on Amazon.com in  Paperback or  Kindle Edition.


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