- Paperback: 800 pages
- Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (Dec 1 1992)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0380719991
- ISBN-13: 978-0380719990
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.4 x 3.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 807 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#10,012 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5 in Books > Nonfiction > Politics > Practical Politics
- #23 in Books > History > Africa
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
In scarcely half a generation during the late 1800s, six European powers sliced up Africa like a cake. The pieces went to Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Belgium; among them, they acquired 30 new colonies and 110 million subjects. Although African rulers resisted, many battles were one-sided massacres. In 1904 the Hereros, a tribe of southwest southwest, if not a country name Africa, revolted against German rule. Their punishment was genocide--24,000 driven into the desert to starve; those who surrendered were sent to forced labor camps to be worked to death. In a dramatic, gripping chronicle, Pakenham ( The Boer War ) floodlights the "dark continent" and its systematic rape by Europe. At center stage are a motley band of explorers, politicians, evangelists, mercenaries, journalists and tycoons blinded by romantic nationalism or caught up in the scramble for loot, markets and slaves. In an epilogue Pakenham tells how the former colonial powers still dominate the economies of the African nations, most of which are under one-party or dictatorial rule. Photos.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
In his excellent study of the Boer War ( The Boer War , LJ 11/1/79), Pakenham demonstrated his ability to handle a great mass of material and a complicated subject in a fashion that produces a readable, highly credible account. Here he turns those same skills to good effect in the infinitely more complex issue of the European exploitation of Africa, which followed close on the heels of exploration of the so-called "dark continent's" interior. The result is a sweeping narrative, refreshingly old fashioned in its appreciation of the fact that imperialism did have some virtues, which offers as good an introduction to the "scramble" as has ever been written. Essential for both public and academic libraries.
- Jim Casada, Winthrop Coll., Rock Hill, S.C.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
- Jim Casada, Winthrop Coll., Rock Hill, S.C.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
I love this book,
By
This review is from: The Scramble For Africa (Paperback)
I have not read it all but when I do pick it up it is very hard to put down. This is a subject that most Americans know little about. I consider this 'good history'. Not ideological. And for the most part the action never stops.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Complex Tragedy,
By
This review is from: The Scramble For Africa (Paperback)
'We are now very sorry indeed, particularly in the killing and eating of the parts of its employees.' - King Koko and chiefs of the Brassmen to the Prince of Wales, 1895Humanity laid bare. Pakenham tells us the story of two worlds in collision, the story of ourselves, treachery and slaughter, exploitation, slavery, and cannibalism, vanity and greed, and, of course, unfaithful wives. Kings, bureaucrats, missionaries, humanitarians, merchants, and soldiers populate his tale, sometimes far too many to keep track of. Pages flash by in an instant as the anxious reader awaits the inevitable. This book rivals any work of fiction, and Pakenham writes it with a great wit and enormous skill. Most importantly, he leaves moralistic preaching behind and focuses on the story, albeit with a special taste for its ironies and tragedies. Unfortunately, the reader will have to look elsewhere for a history of Africa and its indigenous peoples. Pakenham crams so much information in that the background story can't possibly fit.
5.0 out of 5 stars
History book that reads like a novel,
By
This review is from: The Scramble For Africa (Paperback)
What a great book, I learned so much about how Africa was shaped through this book, and Packenhams style is so engaging to me that this book reads like a novel. The suspense when Stanley emerges from the jungle, and when Churchill charges on horse back into battle are really stuff of fantasy but basically its all true.Of course its not all glory, lots of bad things were done and a lot of the todays trouble can be blamed on this period.
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