Thomas H. Holloway is Professor of Latin American History at the University of California at Davis, where he was Director of the Hemispheric Institute on the Americas from 2000 to 2007. He served as President of the Latin American Studies Association, 2000-01, and Executive Secretary of the Conference on Latin American History, 2002-07. He has taught widely on Latin American history since 1974. His research focuses mainly on the social and economic history of Brazil. His previous books include Immigrants on the Land: Coffee and Society in São Paulo, 1886-1934 (1980) and Policing Rio de Janeiro: Repression and Resistance in a 19th-century city (1993).