Hi, I'm undergraduating history student that is trying to start researching, I've choosen the subject of the "history of the anarchist movement in the state of Sao Paulo in the early 20th century". I'm reading a lot of anarchist periodicals, however I lack historiography and some context of the anarchist movement in other countries and the works that I've found are not written by historians and often has too much political bias.
My hypothesis is that the anarchist movement of the early 20 the century in Brazil didn't had the same concept of contemporary anarchism and it was not common in the early socialists movements in the same time period.
I'm here for recommendations (in English, Portuguese or Italian) and some advices in my research, also I'm not sure If here is the best place to ask for such a thing in this subbredddit, and If my English wasn't very understandable I can rephrase what I wrote, because my native language is Portuguese not English.
Sorry this is going to be all in English and somewhat terse because I am on my phone. I’d be happy to answer any questions!
I would always recommend reading primary sources, especially for a project like yours. Louise Michel and Emma Goldman have great accessible autobiographies. Paul Avrich has a great book on American Anarchism called Anarchist Voices (1995). For a more European view, The Anarchists by James Joll would be where I’d start.
For an extremely accessible overview of European and American anarchism (which still makes many Masters Reading Lists), I strongly recommend the ~50 page second chapter of Barbara Tuchman’s The Proud Tower. I think she essentially gets Anarchism wrong, BUT she is a damn good writer who is somewhat sympathetic and somewhat skeptical, and whose extremely readable narrative will give you a jumping off point for who the major thinkers/events are which you might need to explore.
This is by no means exhaustive. Oh! Two more recommendations for French anarchism: Kathryn Amdur’s Syndicalist Legacy and John Merriman’s The Dynamite Club and Ballad of the Anarchist Bandits.
Hope this helps!
Anarchism in Latin America by Ángel Cappelletti has chapter on brazil
https://libcom.org/library/anarchism-latin-america
as does In Defiance of Boundaries: Anarchism in Latin American History edited by Geoffroy de Laforcade and Kirwin Shaffer
The Luso-Anarchist Reader: The Origins of Anarchism in Portugal and Brazil edited by Plínio de Góes, Jr. has essays by Brazilian anarchist