A People's History of Portugal

A People's History of Portugal reconstructs the last two hundred years of class struggle in Portugal.

Raquel Varela and Roberto della Santa examine the material conditions of its people – examining the real causes of the revolutionary waves and counter-revolutionary backlash. Starting in the early nineteenth century, the theme of colonialism and its antithesis runs through the narrative, as working-class life was closely entwined with Portuguese colonial exploitation.

Despite relatively slow industrial development, Portuguese people spearheaded a surprisingly vigorous radical culture of dissent, eventually sparking a social and political revolution in 1974. More recently, Portugal’s inclusion in the European Union has put its people in a neoliberal stranglehold that stifles democracy to this day. Are the working people of Portugal able to carry the memory of the revolutionary past into its future? This is a history of, and for, the people.