Book Description
The Algerian War lasted from 1954 to 1962. It brought down six French governments, led to the collapse of the Fourth Republic, returned de Gaulle to power, and came close to provoking a civil war on French soil. More than a million Muslim Algerians died in the conflict and as many European settlers were driven into exile. Above all, the war was marked by an unholy marriage of revolutionary terror and repressive torture.
Nearly a half century has passed since this savagely fought war ended in Algeria’s independence, and yet—as Alistair Horne argues in his new preface to his now-classic work of history—its repercussions continue to be felt not only in Algeria and France, but throughout the world. Indeed from today’s vantage point the Algerian War looks like a full-dress rehearsal for the sort of amorphous struggle that convulsed the Balkans in the 1990s and that now ravages the Middle East, from Beirut to Baghdad—struggles in which questions of religion, nationalism, imperialism, and terrorism take on a new and increasingly lethal intensity.
A Savage War of Peace is the definitive history of the Algerian War, a book that brings that terrible and complicated struggle to life with intelligence, assurance, and unflagging momentum. It is essential reading for our own violent times as well as a lasting monument to the historian’s art.
Customer Reviews:
Chilling Masterpiece.......2007-09-26
I selected this book wishing to know more about the French war in Algeria. Mr. Horne more than satisfied my curiousity. He provides an in-depth, virtually blow-by-blow account of the eight year conflict, pulling no PC punches, and taking great care to remain as impartial as possible. This is no easy feat, given the intensity of the situation. He is very careful to present this as not a typical colonial war as much as a battle between 2 diametrically opposed visions for Algeria. On one side were the Pieds Noirs, whose families had lived in Algeria for generations, understandably saw Algeria as their home, and wanted to preserve "Algerie Francaise." On the other hand, you have the FLN (not the spokesman for most Algerians), with its demands for Algerian independence, sans the Pieds Noirs. What made this conflict a battle between extremes was the FLN's reign of terror against relative moderates among the Algerians (many of whom had advocated finding a "middle ground" in the conflict). This has the effect of presenting the FLN as France's only "negotiating" partner within Algeria. Moreover, it pushed many of the Pieds Noirs to support such hard-line groups as the OAS. Essentially, the FLN set up the conflict to end in its favor, as the war nearly tore France apart on several occasions (and nearly claimed the life of Charles De Gaulle on an equal number of occasions). Mr. Horne captures this story very nicely, weaving back and forth between Algeria and France. He demonstrates beyond all reasonable doubt that the conflict had very high stakes for the French. Also, he describes how the outcome of the conflict proved to not be France's finest hour, to put it very charitably.
Read it before you start a Mid-East War.......2007-09-21
What every President should know before getting seriously involved anywhere in the Mid-East or Muslim world. It would seem that we are damned if we do, and equally damned if we don't. It's not so much the book's details (although the book is magnificently detailed), as it is the portrayal of the depth of hatreds and the commitment to violence as the sole means to the proponents ends.
Shines a light on insurgencies in the 20th century.......2007-08-19
Horne's classic book on Algeria is one of those rare works of history that breaks open the subject at hand to peer deep into the heart of an era. It details the entire Franco-Algerian war from its historical antecedents through the military and political struggles of the war itself and into the late 20th century, tracking the Algerian fight for independence and the wrestling of the French nation with redefinition after colonialism. The parallels to numerous other insurgencies in the 20th and early 21st centuries are obvious.
What is most tragic about Alistair Horne's tale from my perspective as a theologian, however, is the seeming inevitability of the whole Algerian tragedy. Though Horne highlights several points at which the confrontation might have taken a faster and more complete track toward reconciliation, it's difficult to see how the actors in the moment could have grasped these opportunities. The stage seems to have been set for years of violence sometime deep in the past, as pieds noirs became firmly Algerian and native Algerians became jaded at the empty rhetoric of their French occupiers. Plenty of blame can be spread around to perpetrators of horrible and inhuman acts during the seven and a half years of conflict, but it is difficult to see how any one actor or group could have decisively brought about a clearer peace.
The lessons of the Algerian conflict are ripe to be picked by anyone willing to study it. Many of Horne's insights about these types of confrontations carry over to the war in Iraq, civil war in numerous spots around the globe, and the struggle to combat terrorism around the world. Indeed, the book is being studied at the highest levels in Washington, according to news reports. One can only hope that the venerable chronicler of France's last years as a colonial power is being heeded.
Peering Into the Cesspit.......2007-08-10
One of the things that perplexed and, frankly, disgusted me, throughout this book was the posturing of many key figures on the French side about "honour" and "grandeur". In pursuit of their honour, many of these people behaved in the most disgraceful and dishonourable manner.
They preened themselves on their honour and spoke volubly about "restoring the glory of France", but when the going got difficult, they mostly resigned their positions or simply abandoned their responsibilities - often to return later to repeat the whole disreputable process - or intrigue among themselves.
Perhaps a psychologist could shed more light on this cesspit of misplaced values than an historian.
But what of the other side - the Algerian independence movement? The alphabet soup of factions (FLN, CRUA, MTLD, UDMA etc etc) was liberally peopled by thugs, assassins, torturers and thieves. They squabbled among themselves, intrigued for office, occasionally betrayed each other, and terrorised their own people - all in the cause of Algerian independence.
Even after independence, members of the ruling clique continued to wage war upon each other and upon the Algerian people. The struggle continues to this day.
Ordinary Algerians on both sides were the victims of the war - as is ever the case. At its end, within months, almost all the "pied noir" population had fled the country in one of the great mass migrations of the post war era. Muslims who had worked and fought for the French and who were unable (or chose not) to flee were mercilessly hunted down.
I finished the book with a sense of disgust, of having been soiled by the mostly contemptible people shaping events on both sides. When one peers into a cesspit of struggling fanatics, one inevitably gets splashed.
However, readers should not be deterred from reading this book. "A Savage War of Peace" deserves to be read. Its lessons are equally valid today in the Middle East and elsewhere.
The book gives an excellent account of the war from both French and Muslim sides, but while the latter was adequately covered in a factual sense, that side of the story was somewhat dry and impersonal.
To a large extent this simply reflects the availability of sources - and those willing to talk freely and honestly. The author claims to have been hampered by the "traditional secretiveness and suspicion of the Algerian Arabs" - especially when the possibility of assassination was ever present for those critical of the Algerian leadership.
Within these limitations, Horne gives an objective account of the 8-year war, during which up to 600,000 French military personnel were stationed in Algeria. As the struggle went on, both sides resorted increasingly to torture and terror to achieve their aims.
At one point military victory seemed in sight, although one must suspect that, had the French "won" in a military sense, the price would have been some sort of partition of Algeria into French and Muslim zones, and the permanent military suppression of the latter. Sound familiar?
Another conclusion one can draw from the book is that the relentless pursuit of an ideology rarely, if ever, results in a better life for ordinary people who are to be "improved". This was true for Communism and will probably be proven true eventually for the various forms of Islamic fundamentalism currently destroying lives in many parts of the world - and true also for ideologues on the other side who fight them in the name of freedom and democracy - and who are equally convinced of their righteousness.
Mirror For Our Times.......2007-08-09
Alistair Horne's seminal book on the Algerian War, A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962, is a thorough look at a war that closely resembles the current conflict in Iraq. I read a couple of really interesting articles on this book earlier and felt compelled to read it. Terrorism, civil war, torture: these things also took place in Algeria and it would seem that there are some lessons to learned, but it seems they have not been heeded. It was a very long and complicated book, but not without its rewards. Apparently it has been read by Bush and several of his advisors. I think it would have been more meaningful to me if had a better grasp of the conflict and French history since 1945 in general, but that being said there was a lot of interesting information about this conflict. Terrorism, de Gaulle, France, and other conflicts like those in South Africa, Ireland, and Indo China. I think this paragraph sums up the situation pretty astutely:
One is left with the controversial role of de Gaulle, criticized both for going too slow and too fast. As far as the latter reproach goes, in the last stages of negotiations he suffered from the lesson not learned by Kissinger in Vietnam, or perhaps by Israel vis-à-vis the Arab world, or by the South Africans; namely, that peoples who have been waiting for their independence for a centenary, fighting for it for a generation, can afford to sit out a presidential term, or a year or two in the life of an old man in a hurry; that he who last s the longest wins; that sadly, with the impatience of democracies and their volatile voters committed to electoral contortions every five or four years, the extremists generally triumphs over the moderate. Just keep on being obdurate, don't leave deviate from maximum terms, was the lesson handed down by the F.L.N. (Front de Liberation Nationale) and remains as grimly valid today-Northern Ireland or the Middle East or southern Africa. One after another de Gaulle saw his principles for peace eroded in the face of the F.L.N.'s refusal to compromise. As his disillusion grew, so did his resolve to liquidate the war with all the speed. In his final haste injustices were perpetrated, such as the exclusion from the peace talks of any representative Algerian faction (e.g. the M.N.A.-Mouvement Nationaliste Algerienne)) other than the F.L.N. Yet de Gaulle did liquidate that savage war.
Amazon.com
Frantz Fanon (1925-61) was a Martinique-born black psychiatrist and anticolonialist intellectual; The Wretched of the Earth is considered by many to be one of the canonical books on the worldwide black liberation struggles of the 1960s. Within a Marxist framework, using a cutting and nonsentimental writing style, Fanon draws upon his horrific experiences working in Algeria during its war of independence against France. He addresses the role of violence in decolonization and the challenges of political organization and the class collisions and questions of cultural hegemony in the creation and maintenance of a new country's national consciousness. As Fanon eloquently writes, "[T]he unpreparedness of the educated classes, the lack of practical links between them and the mass of the people, their laziness, and, let it be said, their cowardice at the decisive moment of the struggle will give rise to tragic mishaps."
Although socialism has seemingly collapsed in the years since Fanon's work was first published, there is much in his look into the political, racial, and social psyche of the ever-emerging Third World that still rings true at the cusp of a new century. --Eugene Holley, Jr.
Book Description
A distinguished psychiatrist from Martinique who took part in the Algerian Nationalist Movement, Frantz Fanon was one of the most important theorists of revolutionary struggle, colonialism, and racial difference in history. Fanon's masterwork is a classic alongside Edward Said's Orientalism or The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and it is now available in a new translation that updates its language for a new generation of readers. The Wretched of the Earth is a brilliant analysis of the psychology of the colonized and their path to liberation. Bearing singular insight into the rage and frustration of colonized peoples, and the role of violence in effecting historical change, the book incisively attacks the twin perils of post independence colonial politics: the disenfranchisement of the masses by the elites on the one hand, and intertribal and interfaith animosities on the other. Fanon's analysis, a veritable handbook of social reorganization for leaders of emerging nations, has been reflected all too clearly in the corruption and violence that has plagued present-day Africa. The Wretched of the Earth has had a major impact on civil rights, anticolonialism, and black consciousness movements around the world, and this bold new translation by Richard Philcox reaffirms it as a landmark.
Customer Reviews:
Revolutionary Literature with a Pulse.......2007-06-19
Frantz Fanon's political commentary on colonization is the perfect example of revolutionary literature with a pulse.
It explores the entire ordeal of colonization: from the early pangs of colonized animosity, to armed rebellion, to the destruction of the colonial bourgeoisie, all the way up to the psychological effects of colonial warfare. Fanon asserts that for the colonized: "To live simply means not to die. To exist means staying alive." Thus, it can be inferred that Fanon's portrayal of the Algerian Revolution is one that deals with individuals stripped of the human faculties of identity and forced simply as human beings to exist in the sense of breathing: a morbid assertion at best.
The entire book thrives on the notion that, in order to harness a sense of social identity among the "wretched of the earth," or the colonized masses, it is imperative that violence, or any other possible means, be used to destroy the colonialist foreignors (specifically, in Fanon's case, the French colonists in Algeria). Jean Paul Sartre, who wrote the controversial preface to the Wretched of the Earth, asserts that the only thing keeping the predominantly dehumanized wretch humanized is his desire to kill the colonist, to take his place (an idea also asserted by Fanon himself). Fanon does an excellent job merging the different ideals espoused by the respective sections of the colonized movement, including the urban proletariat, the lumpenproletariat, the tribal leaders, and the colonized intellectual, who Fanon holds in contempt for submission to Western thought (though he later asserts that the intellectual can regain his bearing in the liberation movement if he/she integrates with his/her brethren in the mountains and villages).
The work extensively examines the economic portion of decolonization, and demonstrares Fanon's vehement support for a redistribution of wealth and a unification of resources in order to distribute among the people seeming trivialities, such as grapes and other commodities previously witheld by the colonizer. The memorable conclusion demonstrates Fanon's ideals in his call for the Third World to create a distinct delineation between itself and Europe in order "to create a new man."
Overall, the Wretched of the Earth is one man's cry for a Third World reawakening delivered in miltantly abrasive prose that still resonates to this day.
Revolution of thought.......2007-06-03
This book should be required reading in schools worldwide. It explains and reveals the true condition of colonialism, which is just a euphemism for conquering. All of the European conqueror nations used the same pattern of heinous and inhuman tactics on millions of people all over the world. This book is life-saving for those who inherited the "conquered/colonial condition".
Understand the Psychology of Violent Revolt.......2007-04-27
This was required reading for a graduate course in the Humanities. Frantz Fanon (July 20, 1925 - December 6, 1961) was a Martinique-born French author and essayist. He was perhaps the preeminent thinker of the 20th century on the issue of decolonization and the psychopathology of colonization. His works have inspired anti-colonial liberation movements for more than four decades.
"The Wretched of the Earth" (French: Les Damnés de la Terre, first published 1961) is Frantz Fanon's best-known work, written during and regarding the Algerian struggle for independence from colonial rule. As a psychiatrist, Fanon explored the psychological effect of colonisation on the psyche of a nation as well as its broader implications for building a movement for decolonization. A controversial introduction to the text by Jean-Paul Sartre presents the thesis as an advocacy of violence. This focus derives from the book's opening chapter `Concerning Violence' which is a caustic indictment of colonialism and its legacy. It discusses violence as a means of liberation and a catharsis to subjugation. It also details the violence of the colonialism as a process itself.
Structural politics of race and making oneself is a continuous theme of Pan Africanism 1950', 60's. Colonialism is toppled , growing awareness of colonial conditions and kinds of people that emerge from it, no one comes out of it unchanged both colonizers and subjects recognize colonialism is product of Enlightenment reason a perversion of what it stood for and its ideals. Justify feelings of superiority people of science over people of mythology. All people are transformed by colonization. Justify economy of colonization. The colonizer has to invent a new human being, the colonized. Sigmund Freud and W. E. B. Du Bois are intellectual fathers of Fanon. Colonialism depersonalizes people in their own country. Theory of Manichean logic. Binary thinking, thinking in duality. A society structured around race is Manichean. Social and racial structure of colonialism is Manichean. Us or them, no in between. Black is bad, white is good, etc. Fanon argues to get over this, a new world must be created. A Utopian idea. He advocates revolution and violence. 20th century preoccupation with violence that which is formative of the subject. Theme of 20th century philosophy and psychology. We finally recognize we are violent. 1968 Algerian revolt shakes French society and history to its core. Algerians were promised full democracy for years, they finally get suspicious. Men were cheap labor and biggest import to France. Economic downturn in 1950's causes France to bar Algerians from working in country, so violence ensues. French intellectuals push out old guard and old thinking, student protests, etc. Jean-Paul Sartre led the movement, and wanted to find a genuine authentic voice of this revolt, he finds it in Fanon. Fanon questions who is crazy, tortured or torturer.
For Fanon, there is nothing more consistent than racist humanism since the European has been able to only become a man thru slavery. 2 groups are opposed they can't get along. Empire needs slaves. He critiques Enlightenment. 2 people live as perpetual protagonists. Colonizer and colonists are backed in a struggle. Colonization is good and colonized are amused by this. Both see each other as morally superior. Colonizer uses violence to keep colonized in check, so they learn to use more violence to overthrow colonizer. Colonizer has their history, and history books on their side. Colonized see them as delusional they see the propaganda as a form of violence. Colonized people will accept servitude because they fear death. Once they don't fear death you can't control them. Anger and rage starts to build and 1st violence against their own people and family, and finally they turn violent on colonizers. As soon as they see colonizers can be killed, they will revolt, it gives them self-respect. Oppression is practiced and institutionalized violence. Oppression must be done cruelly and violently. This is what will overthrow Manichean world. A different kind of person will now emerge. He is openly celebratory of violence. He is shaped by his history. Fanon's work in Algeria changes his way of thinking. He concludes counter violence will make a new man. Violence leaves scars on people. Subject consciousness in his book violence is dialectic of master slave process. Colonialism is another stage of slavery. Colonial racism in crudest form anthropologists say colonized have no culture, then they say there is a hierarchy of culture colonizer higher than colonized. He makes links to culture and economic relations and how change in one changes the other. Fanon argues that when the oppressed are lazy, it is one more way for them to sabotage. Laziness is passive resistance. This is a stage in process before colonized is ready to fight back. Colonized can use subtle ways to resist laws and mores. Colonized do this to revolt against oppression. Colonized must develop framework of collective struggle to fight against oppressor. Fanon believes that to have a new person violence is necessary to destroy category of blackness and whiteness Manichean racial duality. Decolonization is always a violent phenomena. Replacement of 1 kind of man with another kind of man. Must have a clean sweep of change in society. Fanon's insistence on violence grounded in his history and personal nature. Psychoanalytic theory of his is different than Freud's, they come from different society and culture. Freud never took race into account in his theories.
On his return to Tunis, after his exhausting trip across the Sahara to open a Third Front, Fanon was diagnosed with leukemia. He went to the Soviet Union for treatment and experienced some remission of his illness. On his return to Tunis, he dictated his testament "The Wretched of the Earth." When he was not confined to his bed, he delivered lectures to ALN (Armée de Libération Nationale) officers at Ghardimao on the Algero-Tunisian border. He made a final visit to Sartre in Rome and went for further leukemia treatment in the USA. Ironically, he was assisted by the CIA in traveling to the United States to receive treatment. He died in Bethesda [Maryland, US], on December 6, 1961 under the name of Ibrahim Fanon. He was buried in Algeria, after lying in state in Tunisia.
Recommended reading for anyone interested in history, psychology, or philosophy.
Poorly written, few new ideas..........2007-03-06
I find that most reviewers have based their evaluation on their agreement or disagreement with the ideas of the author. Although I liked many of his ideas, this book was very poorly written and contained very little new thinking, so I give it the rating it deserves.
Fanon doesn't state his idea and then support it, he just rambles on and beats around the bush and it's up to the reader to figure out what he's trying to say exactly. The result is that he uses a great many words to say very little. This makes for a very frustrating read.
The ideas he presents are not original either. Most of them can be found in Gandhi's "Hind Swaraj" (it's easy to download free English translations of this work off the internet and I stronlgy recommend reading it; plus it's much shorter than Fanon's book). Considering that "Hind Swaraj" was written almost 50 years earlier than "The Wretched of the Earth", the ideas Fanon presents were already old by the time he wrote the book!
Although Gandhi advocated non-violence while Fanon believes violence is inevitable in anti-colonial struggle, there isn't much that Fanon says that Gandhi hadn't already discussed. For instance, Fanon is often credited for predicting (or warning about) the fact that the intellectual and political elite of newly independent countries may simply replace the foreign oppressor. Gandhi had already warned his people about that, when he said that the leaders who overthrow colonialism by violence will also govern by violence. The example if India, which is one of the few colonies that gained independence by non-violence and which is one of the few that has been and remains democratic, proves that Gandhi's predictions were better than Fanon's since Gandhi also knew that violence was not inevitable in the fight for independence and that non-violence was the best way to avoid a simple substitution of the opressor.
In other words, if you want to read well-writen work and interesting ideas about anti-colonialism, don't waste your time with Fanon, read Gandhi instead...
An Analysis of Bad Behavior and Greed.......2006-11-28
Approximately one hundred and fifty years after the Gaul- tites wreaked havoc on the island of Hispanola, they've unleashed themselves again, this time behaving badly in Algeria. Using colonialism as the weapon of mass destruction the author gives a first hand analysis of the psychological and physical warfare during a time when he was assigned as a physician by the colonizing country to this geographic location. He leaves no stone unturned, including his depiction of the petty indigenous elite some of whom are highly educated, but are unqualified, unable to run the government and lead the people without going to their daddy, the colonist, for answers. And though the piece is somewhat over analyzed and redundant in some cases, this work is essential for gaining a clear understanding of colonialisms collateral damage, its affects on the colonized and the psychology behind detestable invaders. The long term destruction , as seen first hand by the author, undeniably can be seen openly now .
Amazon.com
Some stories are so enthralling they deserve to be retold generation after generation. The wreck in 1815 of the Connecticut merchant ship, Commerce, and the subsequent ordeal of its crew in the Sahara Desert, is one such story. With Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival, Dean King refreshes the popular nineteenth-century narrative once read and admired by Henry David Thoreau, James Fenimore Cooper, and Abraham Lincoln. King's version, which actually draws from two separate first person accounts of the Commerce's crew, offers a page-turning blend of science, history, and classic adventure. The book begins with a seeming false start: tracing the lives of two merchants from North Africa, Seid and Sidi Hamet, who lose their fortunes—and almost their lives—when their massive camel caravan arrives at a desiccated oasis. King then jumps to the voyage of the Commerce under Captain Riley and his 11-man crew. After stops in New Orleans and Gibraltar, the ship falls off course en route to the Canary Islands and ultimately wrecks at the infamous Cape Bojador. After the men survive the first predations of the nomads on the shore, they meander along the coast looking for a way inland as their supplies dwindle. They subsist for days by drinking their own urine. Eventually, to their horror, they discover that they have come aground on the edge of the Sahara Desert. They submit themselves, with hopes of getting food and water, as slaves to the Oulad Bou Sbaa. After days of abuse, they are bought by Hamet, who, after his own experiences with his failed caravan (described at the novels opening), sympathizes with the plight of the crew. Together, they set off on a hellish journey across the desert to collect a bounty for Hamet in Swearah. King embellishes this compelling narrative throughout with scientific and historical material explaining the origins of the camel, the market for English and American slaves, and the stages of dehydration. He also humanizes the Sahrawi with background on the tribes and on the lives of Hamet and Seid. This material, doled out in sufficient amounts to enrich the story without derailing it makes Skeletons on the Zahara a perfectly entertaining bit of history that feels like a guilty pleasure. --Patrick O'Kelley
Book Description
Some stories are so enthralling they deserve to be retold generation after generation. The wreck in 1815 of the Connecticut merchant ship, Commerce, and the subsequent ordeal of its crew in the Sahara Desert, is one such story. With Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival, Dean King refreshes the popular nineteenth-century narrative once read and admired by Henry David Thoreau, James Fenimore Cooper, and Abraham Lincoln. King's version, which actually draws from two separate first person accounts of the Commerce's crew, offers a page-turning blend of science, history, and classic adventure. The book begins with a seeming false start: tracing the lives of two merchants from North Africa, Seid and Sidi Hamet, who lose their fortunes#151;and almost their lives#151;when their massive camel caravan arrives at a desiccated oasis. King then jumps to the voyage of the Commerce under Captain Riley and his 11-man crew. After stops in New Orleans and Gibraltar, the ship falls off course en route to the Canary Islands and ultimately wrecks at the infamous Cape Bojador. After the men survive the first predations of the nomads on the shore, they meander along the coast looking for a way inland as their supplies dwindle. They subsist for days by drinking their own urine. Eventually, to their horror, they discover that they have come aground on the edge of the Sahara Desert. They submit themselves, with hopes of getting food and water, as slaves to the Oulad Bou Sbaa. After days of abuse, they are bought by Hamet, who, after his own experiences with his failed caravan (described at the novels opening), sympathizes with the plight of the crew. Together, they set off on a hellish journey across the desert to collect a bounty for Hamet in Swearah.King embellishes this compelling narrative throughout with scientific and historical material explaining the origins of the camel, the market for English and American slaves, and the stages of dehydration. He also humanizes the Sahrawi with background on the tribes and on the lives of Hamet and Seid. This material, doled out in sufficient amounts to enrich the story without derailing it makes Skeletons on the Zahara a perfectly entertaining bit of history that feels like a guilty pleasure.--Patrick O'Kelley
Download Description
An incredible story of shipwrecked American sailors sold into slavery in North Africa and dragged through the hellish interior of the Sahara.
Customer Reviews:
A modern retelling of one of the most influential books in U.S. history.......2007-10-09
We read this book for our book club and had the honor of discussing it with the author, Dean King. As someone without any sort of nautical background, I was a bit worried as I started reading that the book was going to be too technical for me, but I quickly got to the point where I didn't want to put it down. The story, which is true and yet reads like a novel, had a certain "Apollo 13" feel to it...it is hard to fathom that so much could go wrong and yet be overcome. Dean King really did his research and was able to verify seemingly unverifiable elements of the story through his own trek on camel - and in some cases on foot - through the Sahara (such as the branding treatment used for illness and the belief that one cannot be hurt if fallen from a camel).
The original manuscript of Captain Riley's has been documented as being one of a handful of books that was influential to Abraham Lincoln. After his own stint as a slave, Riley - a white man - was able to give voice to the inhumanity of slavery here in the U.S. in a way that, at that time, no black man or woman could. Captain Riley's experiences and the telling of his story certainly had an impact on the consciousness of the American people and its leaders. This book brings history alive in a truly thrilling way. I highly recommend reading the footnotes for each chapter and the extra features (like an excerpted interview with the author) included in the paperback version of this book.
Too Much Camel Urine.......2007-09-20
Skeletons of the Zahara certainly has moments of high drama, and the fact that the story is (mostly) true, adds to the sense of adventure and disbelief. And the poor sailors stranded on the Western Shore of Africa could not have been treated much worse than they were. But for me, the retelling of this story suffered from the same monotony as the sailors themselves must have felt. There are lengthy passages of their travels through the desert that are too similar to other lengthy passages of their travels through the desert. This was interspersed occasionally with the graphic depiction of the devouring of an entire camel. I don't really have a weak stomach, but the numerous references to the green goo inside the camel stomach which became the main entree on the menu was a little too much even for me. Then there was the camel urine, which one and all slurped down like a nice chardonnay. Maybe I need to spend more time with the Touareg to get a better feel for things.
One Heck of a Ride.......2007-07-23
This book rips your throat out and stuffs it up your nose!!!!!!!!!
If you think you are tough.....or if you waste your time watching the goofy fake Survival Reality TV shows.......then you need to cleanse your brain with this book......It will show you what a wimp you really are...I do not know anyone who could take for 24 hours what these human beings endured for the extraordinary amount of time they were subject to these conditions from hell......... Dean King did his homework ...from the library to the turf...He actually ventured into this region and DID SOME REAL HOMEWORK
It'll take your breath away.......2007-06-25
Americans shipwrecked in 1815 and held captive by Muslim slavers in the Sahara.
I was considering ordering Sufferings in Africa by James Riley and Robbins' journal: by Archibald Robbins, the two books King based his book on, but after reading this I didn't think I could stomach anymore of their suffering.
The cruelty and ignorance of the arabs/islamist/muslims is stunning. How could and why would anyone be so cruel? If you don't take care of your servants how are they going to be able to continue to serve you?. These arabs were either too dumb to logic that out or just inherently vicious.
Devoured by the Desert.......2007-05-13
This incredible tale captures the true recollections of survivors of shipwreck and enslavement by nomadic Arabs in the western Sahara in 1815. It's a time when the US is striving to assert itself on the world stage. American men seeking to provide for their families willingly take great risk and leave their homeland and find themselves in the Islamic world, stranded and forced to pay a high price to escape. Survival in this world requires enduring constant threat to life and limb. While some of the Arabs are worthy of respect and admirable in their bravery, even the best examples have a moral code that is hard to reconcile with Western values. Equally true is how Islamic values mirror some of the best and worst of Western values (slavery, cruelty for economic profit, strong familial bonds, communal coherance in a time of threat, and dissonance in a time of abundance). While the story of Captain Riley and his fellow American sailors may stand as one of the world's great survival tales, it is enriched by moral themes relevant to today's world experience.
Customer Reviews:
rommel papers .......2007-09-11
great book written from the surviving papers after his death there would have been more but a lot of his stuff was taken by the Nazis, and much more was lost to the US Army but his wife and son saved some and from this B.H. LIDDELL-HART was with the help of the wife and son to put his great skill as a battlefield commander in a new light A must read for any student of WWII also checkout ATTACKS by Rommel this book is about his time as a young lieutenant in WW I
Up there with the master himself.......2007-06-06
This is one of those books that made the shivers run down my spine while reading it. It felt like being right there in the thick of it with this amazing field commander. This man is a born leader and has the audacity and knighthood to fight an honest fight. He did what he believed was right and he is portrayed as human as possible in this text. War is a terrible thing, but it still is a part of our way of life. This cannot be denied! These memoirs are of the highest value and a must-read for anyone interested in the war in Northern Africa.
Fascinating!.......2006-12-31
This book is one of the best memoirs I have read. It is Erwin Rommel's account of the Second World War from start through finish. The best and most interesting thing about this book are Rommel's thoughts. He talks about all of his battles, and experiences throughout the war, but he weaves in personal things as well which make this a superb piece of writing. You will definately not be disappointed in purchasing this book. Anyone interested in Rommel, the German view of WWII, or WWII in general, should buy this book, hands down.
War as Only He Knew It!.......2006-02-11
Legendary Field Marshall Erwin Rommel narrates the war effort from the German point of view. Outnumbered, out gunned, but never out "generaled," Rommel explains both his early successes and ultimate defeat. His work is rightly considered a military classic and also provides a unique insight into the Nazi high command.
Rommel begins by talking about the victory in France. Utilizing superior tactics and equipment the Germans achieved in six weeks what they failed to accomplish in four years in World War I. The lesson is simple: Military planners should always plan for the next war, not the last one.
Then it was off to Africa. Rommel again outclassed his opponents until the material superiority of the U.S. and British destroyed any chance of success. He repeatedly decries his inadequate air support and lack of supplies. Only much later was ULTRA revealed to be the cause of much of his difficulty. (See, The ULTRA Secret, by F.W. Winterbotham, Harper and Row, Publishers, 1974.) Read this section with a map of North Africa in hand!
Last, was his defense of Normandy. Knowing he would have only Goering's promises for air cover, the once foremost exponent of mobile warfare opted to defend at the shoreline in an attempt to force the Allies into a negotiated peace. Alone, with grossly inadequate supplies, and only a short time to prepare he orchestrated a masterful defense which well might have succeeded if Hitler had allowed him to fight his own battle.
Finally, after service in two wars, and fighting valiantly against overwhelming odds, Hitler gave him his "reward." In true Nazi fashion, he was "allowed" to commit suicide to save his family rather than face a Peoples Court.
This work shows how the Nazi high command repeatedly violated the Principles of War of Mass and Unity of Command with disastrous results. Furthermore, it shows how a dynamic leader can accomplish nearly miraculous results even against all odds. The fact he unwittingly served an evil regime in no way diminishes his greatness as a military leader. When the names of the great Generals of history are recited: Lee, Jackson, Forrest, Guderian, and Patton; Rommel's name is sure to be included. A true classic in military literature; 5 stars!!
Harold Y. Grooms
Great Insight.......2005-07-07
Very insightful and interesting look inside the mind of one of the greatest generals of WWII. He was a true soldier - it's unfortunate he was associated with Hitler and the Nazis. He may have been considered one of the greatest generals of all time if it weren't for the evil of the regime he fought on behalf of.
Worthwhile reading if you want to understand what "the other side" had to deal with during the war. It allows you to better understand the mind of the soldiers who believed they were fighting for their country without simpathizing with the Nazi government.
Rommel's support for the assasination of Hitler, while not proven, also offers an interesting perspective on how the army came to fear and distrust Hitler's intentions.
Book Description
This intense, vivid report and call to action from the heart of violent Darfur, by a former Marine working as an unarmed military observer for the African Union, is a powerful memoir of a young man's awakening to conscience and the first extensive on-theground account of the genocide in Sudan.
Former United States Marine Brian Steidle served for six months in Darfur as an unarmed military observer for the African Union. There he witnessed first-hand the ongoing genocide, and documented every day of his experience using email, audio journals, notebook after notebook and nearly 1,000 photographs. Gretchen Steidle Wallace, his sister, who wrote this book with Brian, corresponded with him throughout his time in Darfur. Fired upon, taken hostage, a witness to villages destroyed and people killed, frustrated by his mission's limitations and the international community's reluctance to intervene, Steidle resigned and has since become an advocate for the world to step in and stop this genocide.
The Devil Came on Horseback depicts the tragic impact of an Arab government bent on destroying its black African citizens, the maddening complexity of international inaction in response to blatant genocide, and the awkward, yet heroic transformation of a former Marine turned humanitarian. It is a gripping and moving memoir that bears witness to atrocities we have too long averted our eyes from, and reveals that the actions of just one committed person have the power to change the world.
Customer Reviews:
"welcome to hell".......2007-09-14
After four years as a captain in the Marines, in September 2004 Brian Steidle moved to Darfur, in western Sudan, where he joined an international team from the African Union to monitor the unfolding tragedy "where Arab Muslims kill African Muslims because the Africans are 'too black.'" Their team was unarmed and officially impartial to all sides; their duty was to "observe, inquire, and write reports," although by the end of his stint Steidle realized that of the 80 reports his team wrote only four reached the American Embassy by normal channels. When he left six months later he had assembled a comprehensive documentation of the Darfur genocide, including a photo archive of 3,000 pictures (twenty of which are included in the book), an audio journal he made on an MP3 player, personal notes, emails, and intelligence collected from some 30 NGOs.
Steidle's book is his eyewitness account of the horrors he documented on a daily basis-- children who had been shackled together, raped, and then burned alive; gang rape of women and girls of all ages; grotesque dismemberment of victims; the total burning of dozens of villages; the bull-dozing of camps for internally displaced victims; starvation; mass graves; jets and helicopter gunships slaughtering civilians; and endless cases of pillage and plunder. "Welcome to hell," one of his colleagues said when he first arrived. Estimates vary, but about 300-500,000 black African Muslims have been killed by the Sudan government (both army and police) and the janjaweed militia (literally "devil on a horse") that they have funded, trained (complete with graduation exercises), armed, and closely collaborated with in attacks. Another 2-3 million have been internally displaced. One of the most chilling pieces of evidence in his book, if anyone needed more evidence, is a government document specifying the steps they were taking to execute an official policy of ethnic cleansing. Most disheartening of all, Steidle understood that the Sudanese government knew that it could continue the genocide unabated because the international community would do nothing at all. Violence has spilled over into neighboring Chad and also threatened NGO and humanitarian workers. In addition to his book, Steidle has made a film that was released in the summer of 2007 (see www.thedevilcameonhorseback.com).
Open your eyes and raise your voices.......2007-09-10
Last night I saw the film `The Devil Came On Horseback'. Through the efforts of Brian and Gretchen Steidle, I was able to sweat in the baking sun and travel the raw dirt roads of Africa to bear witness to outrageously evil and willful acts of violence. I was also able to sit and sob with the victims of these horrendous acts - those who had lost their homes, their families and some their very flesh during this still ongoing genocide in Darfur. I was given the opportunity to see their beautiful souls as well as their great and dire need. To say that `The Devil Came On Horseback' was a wonderful and awe-inspiring film may sound strange. But as I watched the stories of individual survivors and the atrocities they had suffered, I felt my own sleeping spirit rise and a deep desire to help these people with whom I now felt so connected. I felt alive and blessed, strong and powerful and more fully awake than I had in years. Ironically, I am able to empathize with some of the individuals in the film. I believe we all have faced tragedy and loss in our lives. We all have scars from our personal battles - we have all felt alone and scared. The people of Darfur are right now fighting for their very existence. Why? Because they had the audacity to be born on a particular piece of land that some insane people think they should own exclusively? And doesn't this all sound awfully familiar? Haven't we seen these same hideous events way too many times in the past? Did you have the nerve to be born brown or Jewish or female? We are born into our various shapes, colors and beliefs. We are all different and yet so very much the same. We cannot be silent and accept the torture and murder of our fellow humans. We must tell all those who seek to harm others and specifically now those committing genocide in Darfur - WE SEE WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND IT IS NOT OKAY. YOU WILL STOP AND YOU WILL PAY. Please help open the eyes and raise the voices of everyone you know.
Hate to disagree but..........2007-08-16
While the topic is an absolute shocker and eye-opener for anyone, the book fails to deliver. I picked up the book to understand the conflict in Darfur. The book was more like a journal and I felt I was reading the same chapter over and over. I was looking for a better understanding of the steps that were taken to stop the conflict, the hurdles and the blockades. But I couldn't get that from this book. Probably has to do with the frustration I went through after chapter after chapter giving the brutality of the killings but The AU's lack of showing absolutely any progress than just making reports and taking pictures. Captain Brian has done a good job documenting all his research and findings but in my opinion this book is a very tunnel-eyed view of the conflict.
A Compelling Must Read.......2007-08-07
Of the many books written on Darfur, none is as compelling as Brian Steidle's book and video of the same name, THE DEVIL CAM ON HORSEBACK.
He does not pull punches. He makes you feel the suffering of the Darfur people and his own justified anger at a world that is doing precious little to stop this genocide. It is a book bravely written.
Highly recommended.......2007-06-06
I just got The Devil Came on Horseback, Bearing witness to the genocide in Darfur by Brian Steidle and Gretchen Steidle Wallace.
OH MY GAWD!!!
I read an article in the Calendar section about a documentary that was playing in Laemmle theaters either based on this book, or based on the same experiences that the book is based on. I followed a link or two on the internet and found this book. Basically, the author was assigned to Darfur to monitor a cease fire, and to document any violations (which were apparently rampant). I'm only 19 pages into the book so far, and
OH MY GAWD!!!
Well it's eye-opening. I've been listening to the news about Darfur, and was curious to know about what is behind the conflict (or who more particularly), and why is it persisting. I thought a first-hand account of someone who was actually there would be the best way to find out.
I have to give you a little snippet here that evoked the most emotion from me so far:
As far as I could tell, for women life was extremely difficult. Sudan was primarily a patriarchal society, yet the women were the laborers. They might walk five or six hours with huge bundles of firewood or five-gallon buckets on their heads to collect their daily water. Girls could be sold by their fathers into marriage for as little as two cows--roughly $400--and human trafficking was not uncommon. Women were stoned to death in some places if they cheated on their husbands, but men were legally allowed to take up to four wives. In almost all circumstances, men would not even stand next to a woman. The men would sit, and the women would stand behind them. I had heard that approsimately 90 percent of Sudanese women still undergo female genital mutilation, and I learned that there are two methods. The first removes only the clitoris, but the second procedure involves sewing the vagina closed, often using thorns.
I have certainly heard about the first form of mutilation, but not the second. I just think it is something no human should have to experience. And then a little later on the next page there is this little tidbit, "... there was a broadly believed myth that having sex with a virgin would cure you of AIDS." My goodness. No wonder AIDS is such an epidemic! Confronted with the same risks, I might want to sew up my vagina too. But I suppose it doesn't really stop the rapes.
I remember in school learning about things like the Holocaust and thinking, "Those were the olden days. The world is civilized now." Naive doesn't even begin to cover it.
No, I think atrocities like these will never really end unless and until we can confront the evils within ourselves. What can lead a human to do to another human such inhumane things?
Book Description
In mid-2004 the Darfur crisis in Western Sudan forced itself onto the center stage of world affairs. Arab Janjaweed militias, who support the Khartoum government, have engaged in a campaign of violence against the residents of Western Sudan. A formerly obscure `tribal conflict' in the heart of Africa has escalated into the first genocide of the twenty-first century. In sharp contrast to official reaction to the Rwandan massacres, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell called the situation in Darfur a "genocide" in September 2004. Its characteristics-Arabism, Islamism, famine as a weapon of war, mass rape, international obfuscation, and a refusal to look evil squarely in the face-reflect many of the problems of the global South in general and of Africa in particular.
Journalistic explanations of the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe have been given to hurried generalizations and inaccuracies: the genocide has been portrayed as an ethnic clash marked by Arab-on-African violence, with the Janjaweed militias under strict government control, but neither of these impressions is strictly true. Darfur: The Ambiguous Genocide explains what lies behind the conflict, how it came about, why it should not be oversimplified, and why it is so relevant to the future of the continent.
Gérard Prunier sets out the ethnopolitical makeup of the Sudan and explains why the Darfur rebellion is regarded as a key threat to Arab power in the country—much more so than secessionism in the Christian South. This, he argues, accounts for the government's deployment of "exemplary violence" by the Janjaweed militias in order to intimidate other African Muslims into subservience. As the world watches; governments decide if, when, and how to intervene; and international organizations struggle to distribute aid, the knowledge in Prunier's book will provide crucial assistance.
Customer Reviews:
Clarity Triumphs Over Cliche.......2007-08-05
If you will read just one book about Darfur, I can't imagine a better choice. Nothing else I've read so deftly sorts through Darfur's complex history, making clear how geographic, economic, social and political strands of the region's past made it vulnerable to the crimes perpetrated there. Prunier takes a seemingly incomprehensible story and makes it almost perfectly comprehensible. Prunier shatters all the myths and cliches that pervade media accounts of the conflict and so vex critical thinkers, who know that it can't be that simple- that there is more and at the same time, less to the story. His analysis of the Sudan's history is concise, compelling and dead on. Moreover, though the North-South war which raged for over 40 years is not the book's focus, he brilliantly analyzes how that struggle relates directly to Darfur. Chillingly, he explains how, for the Khartoum government, its actions ( and inactions ) in Darfur are perfectly logical and, from their perspective, quite effective. As one reads Prunier, he can imagine how readers years ago must have been sickened and yet, oddly "reassured "( I can't find the right word ) when they realized that the Holocaust was explainable. I say this not to compare Darfur to the Holocaust. Prunier doesn't do that either. What I refer to is the provision of explanation for events so mind-bogglingly horrible that one wants to grasp the causes, yet fears that this can't be done. If you are compelled to understand the historical roots of this horror, order Prunier now.
Poor Editing Harms Presentation.......2007-07-27
I'm not an expert on Darfur nor do I spend much time reading about Aftrican politics. I came to this book in the hopes of understanding the Darfur crisis better. Parts of this book are excellent, but the poor editing and confused chronology for the updated section at the end nearly make the book useless for the uninformed reader. The first section on historical background is fascinating and for the most part clearly written, although it would have been useful to offer a clearer chronology of events in Chad, which have an important impact on Darfur.
Unfortunately, the editors did not take the time to correct numerous spelling, syntax and grammatical errors that existed in the 2005 version. I'm not a good copy editor with my own work, but these errors were so numerous and obvious as to be a bit disheartening.
But this is a mere annoyance compared to the confusing additional text added in this "revised" edition. (1) The glossary of Arabic terms is useful, but incomplete. (2) The list of abbreviations is incomplete, and quite often the abbreviations are not even spelled out with their first use. Try to figure out what AMIS stands for. (3) There are numerous mistakes and inconsistencies in the use of abbreviations. On page 161 the Common Peace Agreement (CPA), which one does not find in the list of abbreviations, is misspelled as DPA! Or does the author mean the DPA, another unlisted acronym?! Try sorting this out as a non-specialist. The author switches randomly between the use of the abbreviation SLA and SLM for a key rebel group - it's the same group, but again very confusing. I was only able to understand this based upon other outside reading. No explanation is given in the text.
Finally, the constant temporal shifts that occur in the "new and revised text," which should take the reader through 2005 and 2006 is almost on the edge of being useless, unless the reader is so familiar with the material that the reader can sort out the confusion. Read the final pages and tell me, if you can, when the DPA, another abbreviation not listed at the front, was signed, in 2005 or 2006? You'll have to look elsewhere for the answer to this important and basic question.
The editors of the Cornell University Press series Crises in World Politics, have done much better elsewhere with "Peace at Any Price - How the World Failed Kosovo," a far superior work on a similar topic. This book does not live up to that standard. - Mark A. Wolfgram
"...simple killing is boring, especially in Africa,".......2007-04-17
writes author and "renowned analyst of East Africa, the Horn, Sudan, and the Great Lakes of Africa," Gérard Prunier in his explanation (Pp 155, 156) of why he believes that the situation in Darfur does not qualify as genocide - (because there was not an attempt to "destroy a racially, religiously, or politically predefined group in its entirety,") although he admits that it actually makes no difference how exactly it is defined. His explanation of this one point is clear; however, the rest of the book is extremely difficult to follow due to its concise, complex, research paper-like style. In the first paragraph, he states that the introductory chapter, "...aims at giving...an overview to enable the non-specialist reader to grasp the context in which the crisis developed." That may be the case, but this reader felt only minimally enlightened on the subject of Darfur after having read Chapter 1 (twice), and the remaining five, even having taken notes along the way. Prunier's attempt to explain the situation in Darfur to everyman types is no better than that of Julie Flint and Alex de Waal in their Darfur: A Short History of a Long War - an equally tough read.
Two lies and two truths.......2007-02-10
This book makes to bold faced lies. First it claims the British governate of the Sudan tried to keep the people 'stupid' and underdeveloped. This is a blatent lie. The British administration was the one that outlawed slavery and the one that rolled back a thousand years of Arab-white Islamic colonialism and freed the African people of Sudan from bondage. The second major lie of this work is that the genocide supposedly comes out of a mere 'competition' for resources. This is like saying all genocides are just about 'resources' a typical marxist intepretation that is short sighted and wrong. The fact is that white Muslim Arab slavers dominated and colonized Sudan and through many 'jihads' extended their influence deep into Africa, destroying and depopulating part of the continent. These people were angry when the Africans, their Libyan supporters and earlier the British had encouraed the African Blacks to think of themselves as people and not the inherent property of Arabs from Saudi Arabia who dealt in them as they dealt in oil. Even Bin Laden owned black slaves in Sudan. When the Blacks revlted against the racist aparthied government in khartoum the government responded with genocide.
This book is the typical 'economics is everything' drivle. It should be commended for at least calling what is happening 'genocide' but it points to all the wrong causes and reasons. The difference between genocide and conflict is that one is race and hate based and this is what has taken place in Sudan.
Seth J. Frantzman
Comprehensive and Eye-Opening work.......2007-01-27
As Yehudit Ronen stated, Prunier rightly labels the response of the international community to the atrocities in Darfur, a "regression of civilization," a description he convincingly argues for in this comprehensive and eye-opening work. In it, he analyzes the historical roots of the conflict in Sudan's western region and discusses why international efforts to halt the tragedy in Darfur have been so impotent.
Prunier takes the reader to the early history of Darfur as an independent sultanate and relates the human movement into the region of people who now constitute Darfur's diverse ethnic makeup. He details the subsequent annexation of Darfur to Sudan and shows how British benign neglect toward the region began an important trend that endured in the era of independence. Prunier surveys the frustration of democratic politics in Darfur and the devastating famine of the mid-1980s in which about 100,000 people died. He addresses the Libyan interference in Darfur to promote Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi's war in Chad. This, he explains, was a critical cause in pitting the Darfurian "Arab" ethnic groups ("tribes" in Prunier's parlance) against their "African," Muslim co-religionists. It was during the chaotic circumstances in the region between 1985 and 1988, Prunier explains, that the pattern of Arab militia attacks on African villages was first established, and atrocities similar in manner, although not in scale, were perpetrated by the dreaded Janjaweed, the "evil horsemen."
Prunier describes how the cynical opportunism of Hasan Abdallah al-Turabi, the Arab Islamist who had led Sudan jointly with Omar al-Bashir after 1989, further fuelled the combustible components of the Darfurian reality. Turabi's political machinations aimed at removing Bashir from power and gaining sole leadership of the country. The catastrophic results of this power struggle, won by Bashir, would be played out on the backs of the Darfurians and Sudanese society as a whole.
At times bitter, at times scornful, Prunier illustrates the neglect of the international media in bringing the crisis to world attention, largely because of the lack of a catchy angle for another African horror story. Prunier states that the international community also paid little attention to the Darfurian violence due to a combination of reasons, among them the overwhelming desire to finally solve the preexisting Sudanese civil war in the south, the U.S. preoccupation with the insurgency in Iraq, and Khartoum's cooperation in Washington's war on terror. Darfur was thus given a backseat in international priorities as the Janjaweed murdered, pillaged, burned, and raped their way through the region.
While not discussing in depth the socioeconomic problems of Sudan--problems crucial in the ignition of the Darfur fire--Prunier contends that it was notions of race in Darfur that led to the horrors there. Despite the ethnic mixing in the region and the blurred racial lines between Africans and Arabs, this distinction was superimposed on the varied ethnic groups of the region, then exploited by the ruling Arab elite in Khartoum. The possibility of a racial alliance between the Darfurian rebels and their southern "brothers" terrified these rulers. Prunier claims that the killing in Darfur should not be seen as genocide, since the aims of the Sudanese government were not to eradicate a people but rather to carry out the brutal suppression of what was seen as an existential threat. Whatever term one uses, however, the carnage and misery unleashed by Khartoum and its Janjaweed cohorts remains just as horrific.
Amazon.com
The Slave Trade is a massive (900-page) book that attempts to document the entire history of the Atlantic slave trade, a sordid business that somehow prospered for more than four centuries. As the sheer heft of the book might indicate, the story is complicated. Much of the extensive research conducted by Hugh Thomas relates to rivalries both in Europe and Africa. Those who wonder how slavery could have existed in the United States may find revelatory the moral ambiguity of how the business of transporting slaves was conducted.
Book Description
After many years of research, award-winning historian Hugh Thomas portrays, in a balanced account, the complete history of the slave trade. Beginning with the first Portuguese slaving expeditions, he describes and analyzes the rise of one of the largest and most elaborate maritime and commercial ventures in all of history. Between 1492 and 1870, approximately eleven million black slaves were carried from Africa to the Americas to work on plantations, in mines, or as servants in houses. The Slave Trade is alive with villains and heroes and illuminated by eyewitness accounts. Hugh Thomas's achievement is not only to present a compelling history of the time but to answer as well such controversial questions as who the traders were, the extent of the profits, and why so many African rulers and peoples willingly collaborated. Thomas also movingly describes such accounts as are available from the slaves themselves.
Customer Reviews:
Another book on the Slave Trade.......2004-03-03
The Slave Trade is a massive work that attempts to explain the Atlantic Slave Trade which dominated the European and American waters for over four centuries. It covers the beginning when the Portuguese first set foot on Africa in the 1400's to the end of the American Civil War. The book is split into six different "books" which range from the herding of slaves into the ships to European and African attempts to abolish this trade. The author, whether purposely or by mistake, portrays the Slave Trade through the eyes of the slave traders themselves. The period of great interest for Thomas is the nineteenth century when the slave trade began to disappear.
When Great Britain abolished the trade in the early 1800's, it began, with the help of West African naval patrols, to suppress the trade still prosperous in Brazil and Cuba. Thomas shows how ineffectual these efforts were for so many years. He is one of the first to correct U.S. historians who assume the slave trade ended during that time. Many North American ships were still involved during that "illegal era," mostly coming from ports in New York, Baltimore, and especially other ports in New England.
Of course, with any 900 page description it is difficult to keep the reader interested simply because there is so much information out there. Thomas admits that writing on the slave trade produces "no new cultivation," yet he feels it is necessary so that it can perhaps "offer something for almost everyone."(11) Although filled with errors, it can be an excellent read for those interested in the Atlantic Slave Trade.
A MUST READ!.......2003-07-27
THE SLAVE TRADE: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade: 1440-1870 is, perhaps, the single most-important work dealing with the slave trade. This masterful work builds on and partially overlaps John Thornton's AFRICA AND AFRICANS IN THE MAKING OF THE ATLANTIC WORLD, 1400-1800 and Edward William Bovill's THE GOLDEN TRADE OF THE MOORS. It also provides an essential bridge between those works and Ira Berlin's MANY THOUSANDS GONE: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America & MAROON SOCIETIES: Rebel Slave Communities in the Americas (edited by Richard Price).
Starting with the first major shipload of African (white, café au lait and black) slaves taken in a razzia by Portuguese in 1444, Thomas briefly looks backward at the history of slavery among Christians, non-African Muslims and Africans - pagan, Christian and Muslim. He recounts the origins of the Atlantic slave trade - including the long-existing North African-Spanish conflict with mutual slave raids and the beginning of the coastal trade in West Africa associated with Prince Henry's desire for exploration, conquest, profit and religious zeal and the equal desire for conquest and / or profit of almost all African rulers and aristocrats, as well as of numerous merchants (especially Muslim and Mandingo), already familiar with the Trans-Saharan trade. Thomas recounts the early settlements in the Azores and Madeira and Cape Verde Islands, as well as the lengthy effort to conquer the Canary Islanders, including the guanches of Tenerife, and the explorations of Cadamosto. The trade began to be institutionalized by Agreements of mutual benefit between the west coast Africans and European traders (with increasing numbers of slaves being taken from the interior by coastal states)while the plantation system began to develop in Madeira and elsewhere. The fortress at El Mina (Sao Jorge da Mina) was established as well as Arguin and Luanda (which became one of the few exceptions to the principle of non-settlement - of Europeans in Africa - due to fears of antagonizing local rulers, losing trading rights and suffering debilitating and even deadly illnesses). Luso-Africans (persons claiming both Portuguese and African antecedents) increasingly took over the coastal trade in El Mina and Luanda. Despite the papal grant of Portuguese (extended to Spain when the two were temporarily united) monopoly over the trade, the English began entering the slave trade in 1562 under Captain John Hawkins and the Dutch began to be involved in the 1590s.
Thomas then describes the development of "corporations" given monopolies on trading slaves by the various European monarchs and the economic benefits accruing to various European towns, as well as the growing wealth, culture and influence of various West African towns involved the trade. In the 1600s, African slave began to trickle into North America followed by the eventual establishment of the slave-plantation system. Turning to the crossing, Thomas describes, in vivid detail, the horrible conditions slaves encountered aboard ship as well as the high rate of deaths for both (often shanghaied) sailors and human cargo and the inhumane treatment provided to both by the officers as well as the harshness suffered by the latter under the African captors. Included in this section (Book 4) is an account of the various non-human cargo brought to and from Africa.
Turning to the Abolition (of the Slave Trade, if not slavery, itself) movement, the author touches on the views, organizations and actions of political men like Pitt, Wilberforce, Benjamin Franklin and the Marquis de Lafayette as well as the anti-slavery philosophy of men like Montesquieu, Hume, Adam Smith and Burke (in opposition to the interests of men like Voltaire and Locke). In 1807, the reluctant slave owners, Madison and Jefferson, in America, enacted legislation banning Americans from involvement in the international trade of slaves while non-slaveholders William Pitt and William Wilberforce did the same in the British Empire. Great Britain began to pressure other nations to end the slave trade and many African states began to use more of their slave captives to produce goods for international trade in lieu of slave. Portugal, at the same time, began to trade in even greater numbers of slaves. African merchants also actively opposed the attempts by Britain's AFRICAN INSTITUTION to increase the industriousness and productivity of the general African populace due to the potential danger to their trading interests. Britain paid various African leaders to end the trade (although many captives were executed since the rulers could not sell them due to the abolitionist sentiments among Europeans and Americans). Still, slavery itself was not actually abolished in the British West Indies until 1838. In the mid-1850s Brazil and Britain neared war and Britain forced Brazil to adopt anti-slave trade measures in earnest. The book concludes with the end of Cuban involvement in the trade as Britain began to forcibly occupy some African states (setting the stage for the eventual "colonization" of the continent) in order to finally squash the trade - although the epilogue informs us that as late as 1980, 90,000 blacks are still reported as slaves to Arab masters.
It would not, of course, be fair to leave off without pointing some negligible errors in the book: First, the Sources and Notes section seems to have provided bold headings for some of the latter sections (books) but not the former. However, this does no discernable harm toward the body of the work and a few seconds study will clear up the confusion. In addition, while apparently relying on the best statistics available for the total number of slaves transported via the Atlantic / Trans-Atlantic journeys, the work fails to directly rebut some of the much larger numbers proposed by some historians. The author (in citing one minor source) also fails to respond to the criticisms of Sir Richard Burton and those almost identical ones of Orlando Patterson (who fails, however, to indicate his reliance on that noted bigot) on Mungo Park's reliability. However, such a response is readily available in Kate Ferguson Marsters' Introduction to Park's TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR DISTRICTS OF AFRICA. Thomas also fails to explain why he differs with Bovill on the exact relationship of the Sanhaja and the Tuareg. All-in-all; however, these are minor points and hardly detract from the incredible depth, breadth, organization and vividness of this masterful work!
A History of the Middle Passage.......2002-10-28
The most important thing to note about the title of this brilliant book is that it is about the slave TRADE, not slavery per se. For descendants of slaves, this distinction may be pretty meaningless, but to the eighteenth century abolitionists it was critical. As Thomas explains, opponents of slavery such as Lord Wilberforce premised their campaign on the theory that the trade in slaves - with its horrendous "middle passage" in which African men, women and children were piled into rotting hulks for weeks on end - was far more deserving of abolition of than the practice of slavery itself. As Thomas points out, the logic of this position now seems extremely dubious, for even after the British and other European navies had suppressed the cross-Atlantic trade, many countries retained their slave plantations, most notably the Southern United States, Brazil and Cuba.
When one tallies up those who traded in slaves, one finds a scandalously large and non-exclusive club - virtually all the nations of Europe, and all the colonial and "liberated" powers of North America, starting with Henry the Navigator of Portugal and ending with the newly formed states of c. 19th Latin America. In 900 pages, Thomas chronicles a trade that covered four continents and four centuries. This is THE work on the slave trade.
Let history begin.......2002-09-19
The record of civilization is haunted by the dread percentage: the largest percentage of its overall duration saw the domination of slavery. Its seemingly endless persistence and relatively sudden abolition reminds us that the 'way things are' is not an argument for the 'way things should be', and that injustice persists in part because our thinking is flawed Thomas' work is a very well-researched account of modern slavery from the fifteen century until its final overthrow in the nineteenth. Although much of Northern Europe was close to seeing salvery dying out in the medieval period its endemic existence as a constant and sudden last phase in the rise of capitalism can be traced backwards via the Portuguese voyages of discovery, as this initiated the last centuries of the disastrous and maleficent Atlantic trade to the Americas. This work is quite comprehensive as to the facts, without commentary. The suddenness of the abolition period is sometimes ascribe to the emergence of the capitalist system, yet there seems to be something missing in that account. Did Rousseau denunciation spring from questions of economic efficiency. The history of slavery seems always an account of men mesmerized by their worlds, finding its evils the basis of phantom normality, men without a history as automatons in their blindness. We inherit the labors of those who woke up to history to let it at last begin. Very useful account at nine hundred pages.
highly informative but not well organized.......2002-07-20
I learned a great deal about the Atlantic slave trade from this book. Among other things,I hadn't realized how extensive the English involvement in the trade was or that there were slaves in Europe itself, even in the UK in the 18th century. The book is long in number of pages but short on summary and analysis. It has mind-numbing chapters of detail about individual slavers, but rarely a coherent description of where things stood at a given point in time. Also it would be helpful to be more familiar than I was with the general history of the West Indies, particularly the British West Indies, and with Spanish and Portuguese colonialism in the Americas because the book seems to assume that readers don't need much background on these topics. I thought it picked up speed in later chapters when it began talking about the struggles in Europe, particularly the UK, to end the slave trade - here it seemed like the author was on more familiar ground dealing with British politics, conflicts between European countries and so forth. The organization of the book is hard to follow and the chapter titles are not very helpful, so going back and trying to find information is quite difficult. The information in the book is fascinating, however, so it is still well worth reading.
Customer Reviews:
great timing.......2007-07-07
I received this item very fast, faster than i expected with the packaging in excellent condition.
An interesting book. A start maybe, but not a conclusion.......2007-07-05
The book makes an interesting read, Van Sertima has challenged for years the concept put forward by some that Africans (or more specifically Black Africans) have contributed little to world civilization. In this book he presents the case of the Moors and their influence on Europe.
While some parts are interesting and in some cases can be quite an eye opener they should by no means be seen as a be all and end all to African studies. One major problem I feel with the book is that while Van Sertima is trying to present Africas contibution to the world he is seeing it through an entirely Western perspective.
First of all, the Moors (i.e. the people of North West Africa) though some are of dark complexion and some black most of them are not. Unlike for example colonial American history the eithical outlook of the people did not revolve around race but rather faith or tribe. Often historians project modern concepts of race and society on hisorical people who simply had no concept of it.
Van Sertima is not unique in this nor are western historians take Nassar for example in Egypt who placed on his flag the embem of Salahuddin calling him a 'great Arab leader' (even though he was a Kurd who lead an army that almost certainly consisted of mostly Turks, secondly Kurds and then Arabs)
Another issue with the book is it is based upon almost entirely Euopean sources. True, many of them are translated Arabic books but that can hardly substitute from the original. There are some that would see this as a minor or even unimportant issue (many of the most Islamaphobic books printed today are by 'experts' who dont speak a word of Arabic) but imagine someone writing a book on say French history or the history of the Russian church but could speak not a word of French or Russian!
As a result, Van Sertima is left with a book that often contradicts itself and often has errors resulting from miss-translations or transliterations.
The book is an iteresting read but Andalusia for example, was hardly a Black African colony. It was a land that included native Spaniards, Arabs, Jews, Slavs (in fairly large numbers) Persians, Black Africans etc. People that Europeans may have refered to as 'Moors' does not mean that they were Black as the term refered to North Africans in general.
The book includes an exellent biblography for further reading though almost all, books by western authors.
Golden Pages of the Moor.......2006-08-11
Golden Age of the Moor is destined to become a classic if it isn't already that. If I could give it ten stars, I'd give it twenty. Teeming with boldly told truths and irrefutable facts about what was perhaps the most pivotal time period in the history of African and Western cultures, focusing on one of the greatest empires ever, this book is not merely a great read; it is full scale reeducation. Zooming in on the Moorish occupation of Spain between the 8th and 15th centuries, this book offers readers an inspiring revisitation of that period. Here is an awesome compilation of well presented scholarly essays representing an all-star ensemble of front line scholars and progressive thinkers, complied and edited by the J. A. Rogers of this generation, Dr. Ivan Van Sertima. And speaking of Rogers, Golden Age of the Moor mirrors Rogers, as it too, displays many rare illustrations and photographs depicting historical Moors as the highly civilized and enlightened people they were. And this book boldly identifies Moors as an African phenotype.
It's really exciting to vicariously participate in the collaborative work of these great minds as they converge scholarship on this one important subject; the Moors. One can only imagine the force of energy and unity involved to make this timely project the outstanding resource success it is. It's shameful that so Many people are dumbfounded about this history, thus, I feel awkward saying, this is one of the best books on the subject.
I've read some harsh criticisms about this work and it is nothing but sour grapes. When truth, especially that which has been hidden for a very long time, boldly emerges; some people who have profited by its absence, either emotionally, spiritually, economically or whatever, are certain to anger, and through that anger; they will call the truth teller a liar. Such is the case with the emergence of this book. Moorish history has for too long been pushed out of the big picture and it deserves its proper place on the historical canvas. We applaud those who dare to interpret and report history with integrity to let the chips fall where they may. On that note, I recommend the Euvolution Of Sacred Muur Science By Noble Timothy El as a complementary resource to this book.
My only criticism (and perhaps it's not really that) is that, as some of the contributors here present the research supporting Moorish identity, they seem to almost defend their positions in doing so. While I do understand the reason for this, I insist that truth needs no explanation or defense. Everybody who knows, knows the Moors were Africans. You need not engage, dignify or invite polemics on that topic. History speaks louder than words. Cased closed!
Mr. Van Sertima! Thank you, Sir.
Moor Maur Moore Muur and More Knowledge.......2006-02-05
Superior book that's all I can say, nothing but the facts any detractors are just hating. Like Malcolm said "History is a just reward for all research" and thats what Ivan Van Sertima presents in one of his best works on Moor culture. I would recommend this book along with "The Huevolution of Sacred Muur Science Past and Present" by Noble Timothy Myers-EL (2005)
Historically incorrect revisionism.......2006-02-02
Since when does one have to be historically incorrect in order to be politically correct? I bought this book in order to get some good history on the Maghrib area, the Imazighren peoples generally do not have much written history except that which is in Arabic (Ibn Battuta, Ibn Khaldun, etc) or by the French colonizers. I have travelled throughout Morroco and am very much interested in the Sahrawi cause.
Ivan Sertima is no help in sorting out that history because his knowledge of the area seems like it came from armchair readings. The Introduction sets out on the first page to explain an African dynasty in Spain. But Van Sertima doesn't have any name other than which the Romans gave him "Batrikus". Now these are the same Romans who had no knowledge of the trans-Atlantic world, no Arabic science, and no way of knowing what the hell they were talking about! So much for the alleged facts of Batrikus and his Spanish dynasty.
But that is not all. Van Sertima is not clear about what name to give these Batrikus people...so we can just call them "Van Sertima batrikanii" or whatever. In the next paragraph Van Sertima tells us that "They settled in that part of the country between their place of the landing in the west, and the country of the Franks in the east." But there were no Franks in Spain!!! The Franks were in Gaul. The Visigiths were in Spain, but they didn't get there until later. They did not convert to Christianity until King Recared in 589 CE. In Gaul, the Frankish King Clovis had already converted in 486 CE. But Van Sertima says that the Romans arrived 157 years later. Later? Later than what year? Van Sertima does not answer this because you can't put exact dates on mythological characters, right?
Then Van Sertima fabricates a story about a certain Taharka from Ethiopia and/or Egypt and calls the Roman city Tarraco (in Spain) his geographical namesake. Again, there is no proof so he calls on a XVIth century Christian imperialist pseudo-historian Florian de Ocampo to justify this legend! Imagine that! It's like calling on Hitler to give accurate information about Jewish history. Talk about "asenine ignorance" (Van Sertima, 9) In the next paragraph, Van Sertima is sure that Napoleon "L'Afrique commence aux Pyrenees," but agin the origin of this saying is still in dispute. You can be sure it was not a racist comment though, it was entirely imperialist. Next: the origin of the word 'maures' is still in dispute, but Sertima thinks it has too do with skin color since that is all he seems to be able to see. In fact the Sahrawis are, and have always been, mixed with a full range of beautiful skin shades from dark to very light. Color only matters if you care...good history really matters to a good historian. I am astonished that Van Sertima uses the term "berber" since it is so imperialist. The real name of these peoples is Imazighren, pl. for Amazigh ("Free men"). But this is coming from a man who believes that Fez and Marrakesh are port cities (4), but they are land-locked!!! Unless Van Sertima knows about a port in the middle of the desert.
My charges are not against the idea of raising consciousness about African contributions to civilization, that record stands for itself. What I am against is the bungling of dates, geography, and the poor reasoning skills Van Sertima displays. Yet I do think the work on the whole is valuable if it helps raise consciousness. The essays by Carew, Reynolds, and especially Chinyelu are really great, but Pimienta-Bey is a little extreme. Don't take Van Sertima's word for it, study widely in the field and cultivate open-mindedness and diversity not propaganda. After all, Van Sertima doesn't even think Diop is always correct.
Algeria
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The Battle of Algiers - Criterion Collection
Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam
Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice (PSI Classics of the Counterinsurgency Era)
Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq
Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone (Vintage)
