“Laws of Chance is an engaging and well-written text that sheds light on a popular Brazilian practice that goes beyond the confines of rudimentary
play. For those who study the political and moral economies of games, the relationship between formal and informal economies, and petty commerce; Chazkel has raised the intellectual stakes.” — Manuella Meyer, The Latin Americanist
“Carefully crafted and theoretically informed, Chazkel’s thought-provoking book joins recent works by Brodwyn Fischer and Janice Perlman to deepen our understanding of lower-class life in twentieth-century Rio de Janeiro and the important, if often misinterpreted, relationship between state and society. . . . Her account of the complex interaction between state and society moves us far beyond superficial understandings based on models of repression and resistance and deepens our understanding of Latin America’s urban modernity.” — Hendrik Kraay, The Americas
“Chazkel has provided a terrific account of the formation of modern Brazil and a valuable source for understanding the injustices still underlying
contemporary politics.” — Peter Kingstone, Journal of Interdisciplinary History
“This intriguing study carefully considers the game from its modest beginnings up through its florescence as a virtual “culture industry” in Brazil.” — Andrew Grant Wood, American Historical Review
“Laws of Chance is well written, and a joy to read. Methodologically, Chazkel offers a deft interweaving of social and jurisprudential theory with a detailed examination of historical experience…. Laws of Chance exposes a fascinating and hitherto unexplored segment of turn-of-the-twentiethcentury business and city life in Rio de Janeiro to the light of day. The book also offers an excellent example of the ways in which business and cultural history intersect and can reinforce each other.” — Gail Triner,, Business History Review
“Laws of Chance is that rare monograph that truly delivers on the promise of its subtitle...Chazkel's study rises to the forefront of the new wave of social history that has succeeded in pushing well beyond the tired binaries of repression/resistance and agency/subjugation.” — Zephyr Frank, Journal of Social History
“Laws of Chance is well-written and free of jargon, effectively weaving description and analysis with great historical imagination and theoretical relevance. The book is appropriate for undergraduate and graduate courses focusing on urban studies, modern Latin American state-society relations, postabolition citizenship, and the development of informal economies. Its importance to all these fields reflects how the book, by historicizing the jogo do bicho and the ambiguous, informal world it inhabited, advances important disciplinary and interdisciplinary arguments about extralegality, citizenship, and urban development.” — Patricia Acerbi, Hispanic American Historical Review
"Written with authority, from an intense historiographical debate to a careful use of varied resources, Chazkel’s book succeeds in balancing the many facets of the craft of history in a stimulating narrative and a pleasant read." — Kaori Kodama, Bulletin of Latin American Research
“Laws of Chance offers a unique perspective that seems to embody the politically engaged spirit of the Duke University Press Radical Book series. This extensive study offers a meticulous reconstruction of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Rio de Janeiro through the lens of the jogo do bicho, or "animal game," the popular clandestine lottery that began in 1892.” — Shawn Stein, Studies in Latin American Popular Culture
“This is a comprehensive study, indispensable for those interested in understanding Rio de Janeiro during the early republican years. More generally, due to its sophisticated analysis, the book will also be useful for scholars and students interested in early Twentieth-century Brazil and Latin America in general.” — Rosana Barbosa, Canadian Journal of History
“[R]ichly researched…. This study… has broader relevance to contemporary debates on the root of drug trafficking and urban violence in late twentieth-century Brazil. It will enrich the reading list of graduate seminars on the making of the informal sector, urbanization, and legal cultures in Latin America in the twentieth century.” — Martine Jean, History: Reviews of New Books
"Chazkel’s book is insightful and well crafted, providing an in-depth look at one of the practices most commonly associated with the origins of Brazil’s current corruption." — Manuel Balan, Latin American Research Review
“Focusing on a fascinating place and time, Amy Chazkel casts unprecedented light on the tangled relations among gambling, market culture, and the modern state. She also tells a lot of good stories. Laws of Chance is a delight to read, as well as a major work of imaginative historical scholarship.” — Jackson Lears, author of Something for Nothing: Luck in America
“Taking the origins and evolution of a seemingly innocuous and commonplace informal lottery—the Brazilian ‘animal game’—as a foundation, this study builds concentric rings of information and analysis to explore relationships between law and practice, state and society, formal institutions and everyday life. The result is an illuminating essay on modernity and urban culture more broadly.” — Thomas Holloway, University of California, Davis