Leslie Bethell is emeritus professor of Latin American history, University of London; emeritus fellow, St Antony’s College, Oxford; honorary research fellow, Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London; senior research associate, Centro de Pesquisa e Documentação de História Contemporânea do Brasil, Fundação Getulio Vargas, Rio de Janeiro; and senior scholar, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, DC.

He was the founding director of the Centre for Brazilian Studies (1997-2007) at the University of Oxford. The final volume of his twelve-volume Cambridge History of Latin Ameria - Vol 9, Brazil since 1930 (Cambridge University Press, 1984 - ) was published in 2008. He is currently living in Rio de Janeiro.