Lords of the Fly : Sleeping Sickness Control in British East Africa, 1900-1960

Rating:
Summary: An intelligent and innovative work
Review: This is a brilliant examination of colonial history from an innovative cultural studies apporach. Hoppe explores a rather modest, but important, facet of the European colonial project in East Africa: the scientific attempt to control the tsetse fly and the sleeping sickness it carried. Beginning with a fascinating exploration of how colonial scientists were cast (and cast themselves) as examples of the imperial, masculine hero, Hoppe constructs an fascinating and highly readable tale of environmental and social engineering. Hoppe convincingly shows that, by restructuring African environments (many of the "cleared" zones would eventually become state controlled national parks) and controlling African settlement and movement, colonial agents actively employed "objective" science to further the British colonial project. Hoppe's use of cultural studies within the field of colonial history is innovative, refreshing, and highly rewarding. This is one of the most interetsing and innovative books on African colonial history in some time.

Rating:
Summary: An intelligent and innovative work
Review: This is a brilliant examination of colonial history from an innovative cultural studies apporach. Hoppe explores a rather modest, but important, facet of the European colonial project in East Africa: the scientific attempt to control the tsetse fly and the sleeping sickness it carried. Beginning with a fascinating exploration of how colonial scientists were cast (and cast themselves) as examples of the imperial, masculine hero, Hoppe constructs an fascinating and highly readable tale of environmental and social engineering. Hoppe convincingly shows that, by restructuring African environments (many of the "cleared" zones would eventually become state controlled national parks) and controlling African settlement and movement, colonial agents actively employed "objective" science to further the British colonial project. Hoppe's use of cultural studies within the field of colonial history is innovative, refreshing, and highly rewarding. This is one of the most interetsing and innovative books on African colonial history in some time.