Rating: 
Summary: History of Victorian Africa Exploration
Review: "Scramble for Africa" is a military and diplomatic history of Victorian African exploration.
As a whole, the book is very good. The events are presented in a chronological order, cutting back and forth between the actions and maneuvers of the Great (Britain, France, and Germany) and Minor Powers (primarily Belgium) in different parts of the continent. One very import item making this book so informative is the use of maps. Parkenham has included enough maps to place all the actions. Frequently, histories need a period atlas in hand for reference. This one doesn't.
"Scramble" is about politicians, soldiers, merchants, missionaries, and explorers. Readers interested in the personalities (King Leopold of Begium, Gladstone, Livingston, Ali Pasha, etc.) who shaped the events in the European conquest of Africa and the early Imperialist era will get the most from the book. I personally found King Leopold to be like a spider in the web as he plotted to found the Belgian Congo. In general, Britains and Anglo-Saxons come out rather well in this history and Europeans and Middle Easterners less well.
If I can find fault in "Scramble" its because it is too Anglo-centric. The British historical contribution to the period and events is very detailed. The French less so. The Portogeuse, Spanish, and Italian is almost absent or incidental. For example, British Imperial expeditions are described right down to the participating units (Guards Grenadiers, etc.); while French expeditionary missions described confuse Colonial Marines with Legion units.
Even though this is a military and diplomatic history, the economic aspect of the story is missing. The search for gold I can understand. Buried in the narrative is the importance of the African export of Palm Oil. However, I don't understand the price of or use of the ivory they (Europeans and native Africans) were slaughtering elephants for and hauling out of Africa.
Parkenham's narrative is excellent and highly readable. This book is recommend more as a peek into the personalities of the movers and shakers of Victorian times then as a history of African development.
Rating:
Summary: History of Victorian Africa Exploration
Review: "Scramble for Africa" is a military and diplomatic history of Victorian African exploration.
As a whole, the book is very good. The events are presented in a chronological order, cutting back and forth between the actions and maneuvers of the Great (Britain, France, and Germany) and Minor Powers (primarily Belgium) in different parts of the continent. One very import item making this book so informative is the use of maps. Parkenham has included enough maps to place all the actions. Frequently, histories need a period atlas in hand for reference. This one doesn't.
"Scramble" is about politicians, soldiers, merchants, missionaries, and explorers. Readers interested in the personalities (King Leopold of Begium, Gladstone, Livingston, Ali Pasha, etc.) who shaped the events in the European conquest of Africa and the early Imperialist era will get the most from the book. I personally found King Leopold to be like a spider in the web as he plotted to found the Belgian Congo. In general, Britains and Anglo-Saxons come out rather well in this history and Europeans and Middle Easterners less well.
If I can find fault in "Scramble" its because it is too Anglo-centric. The British historical contribution to the period and events is very detailed. The French less so. The Portogeuse, Spanish, and Italian is almost absent or incidental. For example, British Imperial expeditions are described right down to the participating units (Guards Grenadiers, etc.); while French expeditionary missions described confuse Colonial Marines with Legion units.
Even though this is a military and diplomatic history, the economic aspect of the story is missing. The search for gold I can understand. Buried in the narrative is the importance of the African export of Palm Oil. However, I don't understand the price of or use of the ivory they (Europeans and native Africans) were slaughtering elephants for and hauling out of Africa.
Parkenham's narrative is excellent and highly readable. This book is recommend more as a peek into the personalities of the movers and shakers of Victorian times then as a history of African development.
Rating: 
Summary: A Complex Tragedy
Review: '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.
Rating:
Summary: A Complex Tragedy
Review: '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, 1895 Humanity 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.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Account of The Scramble
Review: Africa--except for South Africa and Egypt--weren't the prizes that India was. The Great Game involved much more attention. However, it is an unmistakeable fact that between the 1870's, just after America's Civil War and final push Westward, Britain and France conquered most of Africa along with Belgium, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain as more marginal players. A fascinating read.
Rating:
Summary: The white man's burden exposed
Review: Congratulations to Thomas Pakenham for writing another insightful book into the greed and hypocrisy of British, French and Belgain imperialists in their civilizing of the Dark Continent, which were no more than a cover for the blatant pillage and enslavement of the local people of Africa.
In conjunction with his other book, The Boer War, Pakenham has managed to expose Victorian Britain as nothing more than a rotten to the core, amoral and despicable edifice built on the blood, spices, cotton, gold and diamonds of Africa and the Indian sub continent.
Rating: 
Summary: Difficult and tedious
Review: I found this book difficult and tedious to read from the typeface on -- even though I'm interested in the subject and have a B.A. in Pol. Sci. It might be helpful for Africa scholars, but not for the general lay reader. I'd recommend instead Shillington's HISTORY OF AFRICA.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: I found this to be a fascinating and readable account of how European countries descended upon the African continent at the same time and proceeded colonize it. One major sin of most history books is that the authors are brilliant researchers, but dull, dull writers. Pakenham, however, writes with flare, and brings the personalities involved in this part of history to life. It's a thick volume, but it didn't seem thick to me once I began reading it.
Rating:
Summary: I love this book
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: I love this book
Review: 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.
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