Based on extensive research in Brazilian archives, Thais’ dissertation examines the urban history of the Brazilian Amazon in the twentieth century. The Amazon region has largely been the focus of economic historians, studying national and global commodity booms. Despite the valuable contributions brought by these analyses, the intersections of social, urban and environmental processes taking place within the Amazon are consistently overlooked in these studies. Using Manaus as a site of inquiry, Thais examines how the capital of Amazonas state both shaped and was shaped by the peoples, landscape and economy of the Brazilian Amazon in the first half of the twentieth century. By combining these perspectives and moving beyond “boom and bust” narratives about Manaus, this research seeks to show that an analysis of “change over time” in Brazil (which often involves exploring the concept of “development”) must pay equal attention to socioeconomic, political, environmental and cultural issues. Generous grants from the Lemann Center for Brazilian Studies, the University of Illinois History Department, and the Tinker Foundation have allowed her to conduct archival research in Manaus, Belem, Rio de Janeiro, among other Brazilian cities.