The Scramble for Africa 1876-1912
by Thomas Pakenham
Random House. 1991. Hardcover. (9.5 x 2.5 x 6 inches) 738pp. Tan boards with brown cloth spine. Gilt vignette on cover and gilt titles on spine. Mild foxing to the outer text block; spine ends gently pushed; contents clean, Near Fine. The dust jacket has a few short tears and mild edge wear, Very Good+ or better.
The Treaty of Berlin and the scramble that it set off was a most vital and defining period in terms of the West’s engagement with Africa. Written in an encyclopedic breadth of scholarship, there are shocking tales in this book of how the colonialists behaved. Men like King Leopold of Belgium who murdered gigantic numbers of people in forcing them to grow rubber. And Rhodes – who conquered Rhodesia partly by introducing smallpox-infected blankets as gifts to the Matabele [now Ndebele].
