This paper provides a novel reassessment of the Kuznets curve in the context of Brazil’s rapid late development. Using new long run data that integrate surveys, administrative records, and national accounts, we produce macro consistent income shares and other distributional indicators since the 1920s. Our findings challenge the conventional Kuznets hypothesis as it has been interpreted in the literature, especially for the underexplored period around the mid twentieth century. We argue this era is key to understanding what we call the Kuznets curse: the tendency in late developing countries for inequality induced social conflict to be resolved through authoritarian regimes committed to the high savers accumulation model. We interpret this pattern through a new theoretical synthesis combining the dialectics of economic structuralism with constructivist and neorealist institutionalism, supported by analysis of elite discourse.