Portugal & 25 de Abril de 1974 - ‘THE CAPTAINS COUP’, by Wilfred Burchett - New York 2025;

Portugal & 25 de Abril de 1974 - A revolução portuguesa que derrubou o regime do Estado Novo que vigorou de 1926 a 1974, na perspectiva de Wilfred Burchett, o jornalista australiano assumidamente de formação marxista-leninista 

‘THE CAPTAINS COUP’ 

From Dictatorship to Democracy in Portugal (1974 - 1976) 

By Wilfred Burchett 

Edition by Verso 

New York 2025 

Livro de capas duras e sobrecapa, com 352 páginas (322 + xxx), ilustrado e em muito bom estado de conservação. Novo. Excelente.

De muito difícil localização. 

Da badana: 

“ABOUT THE CAPTAINS’ COUP

The first English edition of a legendary journalist’s eyewitness account of the near-bloodless coup and the Carnation Revolution that ended fascism in Portugal

Wilfred Burchett went to Lisbon in 1974 to cover the military overthrow of the fascist dictatorship that had ruled the country for nearly five decades. Burchett’s on-the-ground reporting details the immediate aftermath of the coup and the civilian uprising that followed, which took its name, the Carnation Revolution, from the flowers demonstrators handed out to soldiers and placed in their rifle muzzles. The people’s victory began a transition to democracy. It prompted the withdrawal of troops from Portugal’s colonies, bringing independence to Guinea Bissau and soon to Angola, Mozambique and other colonial territories.

On the fiftieth anniversary of the revolution’s end, The Captains’ Coup offers an insightful, poignant narrative never before available in English from a journalist of international repute. The text is based on the author’s original typescripts, discovered recently in the National Library of Australia.

Included are a foreword and introductory essay that explore the political and journalistic significance of Burchett’s work. Illustrated by contemporary photographs and political posters, the volume is complemented by the editors’ annotations, providing essential historical context.

Also included is an afterword by historian and filmmaker Tariq Ali.”

Da contracapa: 

“Daniela Melo and Timothy Walker have performed a great service to Portuguese historiography – and the study of revolutionary processes – by resurrecting and carefully editing Wilfred Burchett’s writings writings on the revolutionary period … I can certainly see myself using it with students: it encapsulates brilliantly a certain reading of the ‘Carnation Revolution’ and the interviews are invaluable.”

Filipe Ribeiro de Meneses, author of ‘Salazar: A Political Biography’.

“The everyday lived experience of the Portuguese revolution shines through in these pages and in the voices of the key participants. Burchett’s interviews with these victims of the Portuguese dictatorship are the very best and most compelling revelations of the torture, imprisonment and endless harassment and spying to which they were subjected. This is a compelling account, superbly edited by Melo and Walker … a worthy contribution to the fiftieth anniversary of the uprising in Lisbon that ended five centuries of Portuguese colonialism, led to the ending of white rule in Southern Africa, and began a process of democratisation in Spain and Greece, and eventually in Central and Eastern Europe” 

Kenneth Maxwell, author of ‘The Making of Portuguese Democracy’. 

“This carefully edited book offers a vivid portrait of the breakdown of one of the longest right-wing European dictatorships and of its colonial empire”

António Costa Pinto, author of ‘Latin American Dictatorships in the Era of Fascism’. 

“Walker and Melo have brought to light an invaluable first-hand account by one of the period’s leading engagé reporters. Burchett’s journalistic eye brings to life the hopes and fears of the people he meets - activists, farmers, soldiers and fishermen - and with them the experience of the Revolution itself”

Pedro Ramos Pinto, author of ‘Lisbon Rising: Urban Social Movements in the Portuguese Revolution, 1974-1975’.

O Autor: 

“WILFRED BURCHETT (1911 - 1983) has been described as ‘one of the most important journalists of the twentieth century’. He was the first western civilian repórter to enter Hiroshima after the dropping of the first atomic bomb used in warfare. His accounts of the ‘atomic plague’ (radition poisoning) precipitated vehement US military denials and propelled him to international notoriety. 

An avowed socialist who presented stories from a non-Western perspective, he reported from Russia, Vietnam, Korea, Portugal and Angola. 

His work demonstrates a keen understanding of modern revolutionary processes, placing him among the most impactful figures of Cold War-generation political journalism.“ 

Do ÍNDICE: / CONTENTS: 

Preface - Timothy D. Walker

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Journalism from a ‘Remarkable Outsider’ - Daniela F. Melo 

Book I (1975)

PORTUGAL AFTER THE CAPTAINS’ COUP

 1. - The Backdrop

 2. - Daylight

 3. - Conspiracy

 4. - Motivations

 5. - Strategy

 6. - Militants

 7. - Counterattacks 1 and 2

 8. - Organisation

 9. - Counterattack 3

10. - Monopolies

11. - Multinationals

12. - Alentejo

13. - Trás-os-Montes

14. - Reflections

15. - Sardines

16. - Decolonisation

17. - Happy Birthday 

Book II (1976)

PORTUGAL BEFORE AND AFTER THE 25TH OF NOVEMBER

18. - Turning the Wheel Back

19. - Balance Sheet

20. - The Future

Afterword - Tariq Ali

Notes 

Preço: 57,50€;