It is an overview of the scholar Rui Nepomuceno on the social and political events that shook the island over time.
This is an author who despite not being a historian is a scholar interested in the historical course of Madeira, Rui Nepomuceno study several key periods of economic, social and political settlement to the archipelago since the revolution of April 25 1974. According to Urbano Tavares Rodrigues, author of the preface, the author's work "unites, indeed, the scruples of rigorous research and comprehensive, clarity and elegance of writing."
As you read this publication there's something you have to keep in mind, it is a view somewhat Marxist, since the author argues that Madeira "after a few decades after the beginning of settlement and for an extended period, the ruling class allied to the central power promoted the economic exploitation, especially in the south of the island .... " The statement would fit in many moments in the history of countries other than Portugal, but is here expressed in this book in a thorough and clear language, citing literature and authors of recognized merit for that purpose, the route of an archipelago over five centuries. This is a book that is not to be read from cover to cover, like a novel, although it can be done, what I want to address about this publication is to serve as an example of a book of high quality which we can use for consult of the moments and the players that have indelibly marked the island. Its narrative structure is interesting and everything is based scholar asserts through the selected bibliography. Good reading.
