Stanford historian explores social roots of Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro, site of the past Summer Olympics, is firmly in the public eye.

With controversy surrounding preparations for the games, impeachment proceedings looming against President Dilma Rousseff and threats from the Zika virus, it is a symbol of Brazil’s larger instability.

Stanford history Professor Zephyr Frank used up-to-date methods of digital analysis to explore 19th-century life in the Brazilian city hosting the 2016 Summer Olympics for his book Reading Rio de Janeiro.

That has led one Stanford scholar to look back in history to uncover the complex social foundations of the contemporary city.

“Many of the challenges facing citizens today, such as access to housing, public health and education, have their foundations in the 19th century,” said Zephyr Frank, professor of history and former director of the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis at Stanford. Read the full story.