Doing Research on the Brazilian Military: The Experience of Social Scientists

During the 1970s and 1980s, a group of Brazilian social scientists dedicated themselves to studying the role of the military in Brazilian politics. The political importance of this theme was obvious: starting with the military coup in 1964 until the transition to a civilian president in 1985, the military remained in the center of political power in the country. This group of researchers wrote scholarly works that would became fundamental references for the establishment of a field of military studies in Brazil. Furthermore, in the following decades, they also played important institutional roles, creating research groups and serving as interlocutors with the Armed Forces and, beginning in 1999, with the Ministry of Defense. This paper, based on oral histories’ interviews, discusses the political and academic socialization of these social scientists and addresses questions such as: How did they become interested in military studies? What conditions did they face regarding access to research sources? What was their interaction with the military? What was the impact of their work and what reception did it receive?