Lula's Demise and ... Comeback?

As French himself explains, the book pays close attention to the first half of Lula's life, which offers, he argues, the key to understanding how Lula became a key global political figure (2). Such explanation, however, is simplistic at best (and misogynist at worst).[3] It preserves Lula's reputation but ignores why it was possible for Lula to appoint his successor in the first place. The title of the book, Lula's "politics of cunning", is a result of all of these factors and of the concrete challenges that Lula, his family, and his coworkers had to face between the 1960s and the 1980s. French's rigorous analysis of former Brazilian president Lula's trajectory throughout more than half a century of history not only enables us to understand what happened in the past, but also provides key insights to understand the current challenges Brazilian democracy faces. [Extracted from the article]