The Research As a Totem: How an Academic Book Became the Patrimony of a Generation of Officers

The purpose of the presentation is to discuss how my book on the professional socialization at the Brazilian Army’s Military Academy was received and appropriated by the "natives" in two moments. First, when the book O espírito militar (“The Military Spirit”) was published in 1990, the impact of the novelty of being the first work of its kind done in the Social Sciences in Brazil - it is also important to keep in mind the historical context in which the publication occurred, a few years after the end of a long military regime. Two decades later, the book becomes a "patrimony" for a generation, a kind of a “totem”, an identity emblem for the cadets or young officers of the time.