An examination of the European exploration of the African continent probes the impact and reputation of the explorers and discusses the abnormal psychology that led these men to court death in the African wilderness.
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An eye-opening safari into the history and psychobiography of African exploration. McLynn (Burton, 1991, etc.) begins with a brightly colored sketch of the European canvassing of Africa, from Mungo Park's quest in the late 1700's for the source of the Niger to the successful penetration nearly a century later of the last blank spots on the map by German, French, and English adventurers. In between came a host of pith-helmeted derring-doers, most notably Burton, Livingstone, Speke, and Stanley. As McLynn sees it, all were driven by demons, from Stanley's sadomasochism to Burton's hatred of blacks to Livingstone's misanthropy. Upon this historical framework, the author builds his most unusual contribution: a thematic, transhistorical analysis of African exploration, covering in depth such topics as transport, the ivory trade, and the influence of imperialism. The impression grows of a nightmare continent of disease, warfare, and slavery into which Europeans brought their own cruelties and manias, at great peril and for little profit. McLynn provides fascinating, little-found information about everything from favored apparel (umbrellas, dark glasses) to porterage styles (because of the tsetse fly, domesticated animals couldn't survive in the African interior, so the human foot became the main means of exploration) to the eating habits of the black mamba. A close scrutiny of a few months in Stanley's 1874-75 transverse of Tanzania provides a case study of typical obstacles faced by the explorers. The blemish on this peach of a book comes at the end, when McLynn attempts--as did Fawn M. Brodie and others before him--to psychoanalyze the great explorers: Talk of mother fixation and other libidinous undercurrents sounds sadly reductionist in the face of these explorers' extraordinary feats. Except for those Freudian shadows, much bright light on the Dark Continent. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
An account of African exploration during the Victorian era and such major explorers as Stanley and Livingstone. Illustrations.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Hard Cover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. First U.K. Edition. Hutchinson Books, 1992, First U.K. Edition, 8vo, 390 pages, photos. Book and jacket in near fine condition. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" Tall. Seller Inventory # GD010696WRBC4S1
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Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. Hutchinson, 1992. Softcover (15 x 24 cm), x, 390 pages. ISBN: 0091770823. Very Good condition. Bumped, scuffed and lightly creased. Pages tanning. Weight (before packaging): 615g. Seller Inventory # 2796
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SOFTCOVER. This book proposes a thematic treatment of the subject. Following an historical survey of the achievements and scope of the explorers, the ensuing chapters deal with exploration under a series of different headings including imperialism, psychology, warfare, the impact on indigenous societies, slavery and diseases. The book encompasses the whole of African exploration from the charting of the Niger by Mungo Park in 1796, the achievements of Speke, Burton, Livingstone and Stanley, as well as other less well-known figures including French and German exploreres, up to Stanley's last great trek across Africa in 1897. Frank McLynn is the author of Charles Edward Stuart which was short-listed for the 1989 McVitie's Prize for Scottish Writer of the Year and The Jacobite Army in England which won the 1985 Cheltenham Prize for Literature. 1992, A trade paperback copy only marked by light age tanning to the pages. Seller Inventory # 14649528
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