The Scramble for Africa 1876-1912

(Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, 1991) 0947464476. 8vo; original brown boards, titled in gilt on spine; laminated pictorial dustwrapper; pictorial endpapers; pp. xix + (i) + 738, incl. index; monochrome plates; several maps; some cartoons and engravings in text. Merest trace of spotting to top edge. Very good condition. "The Scramble for Africa astonished everyone. In 1880 most of the continent was still ruled by Africans, and barely explored. By 1902, five European Powers (and one extraordinary individual) had grabbed almost the whole continent, giving themselves 30 new colonies and protectorates and 10 million square miles of new territory, and 110 million bewildered subjects. ... In a tour de force of historical narrative, Thomas Pakenham has written the first full-scale history of this extraordinary episode. It took him 10 years and involved trips to 22 African countries including research in Britain, France, Belgium and Germany. This is historical narrative on the grand scale, cross-cut between Europe at the height of its power and Africa in its political infancy, covering a vast terrain and including a huge cast of characters, yet as vivid and fast-moving as a novel." .