Political History of Camocim

Camocim, prosperous and beautiful city in the north of Ceará, gains, through the talented pen of one of its most illustrious sons, a remarkable work. Carlos Augusto Pereira dos Santos, one of the most talented historians of our academy, managed to produce a book that, despite the didactic purposes for which it is proposed, goes much further. The ease with which the text is written, the enormous range of information brought and the wealth of images allow the general public to access an essential production for those who want to know Camocim and — why not? —, other aspects of politics in Ceará and Brazil in the 19th and 20th centuries.

This type of production is not always so easy to find, since, unfortunately, we still suffer from several obstacles in the production of what is called “local history”, such as the lack of archives, poor conservation of sources and the lack of greater support and research resources. This “local history”, it should be noted, was the target, for a long time, of a certain prejudice, as if it were something minor. In fact, everything is history. The “local”, if well worked in a research, allows us to better see peculiarities that escape the more general look. If macro analyzes allow us to understand what is happening in regions such as Camocim, this, in turn, broadens and contributes to the understanding of broader processes, such as the importance of the port and the city's railroad to think about Ceará's economy and the movement of workers in their struggles for better living conditions.