In his short introduction to this long (700 pages) book, Pakenham says the Scramble for Africa bewildered contemporaries as much as it puzzles historians. Well, anyone reading Pakenham’s wonderfully readable and comprehensive chronicle of the shambolic and squalid land grab will be considerably less puzzled as a result.
This is a vast, authoritative, accessible and thrilling book. The story, or multiple interlinking stories, are told in a series of shortish chapters each of which focuses on a particular episode for a key year or so. These pieces interweave to form a mosaic which slowly covers all of Africa, all the key figures and incidents, throughout the period of the Scramble which Pakenham dates 1880-1912. Each chapter tends to start with a vivid scene or tableau depicting a key figure and then set them in their context and their challenge.
Because above all the scramble presented itself as a set of challenges…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
Jan 27, 2018 @ 13:45:36
Read this years ago. Truly an excellent book.
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Jan 27, 2018 @ 18:41:46
I came across a few book review sites over the last few months. They write excellent reviews make you wanting to have a long list of books you need to read mostly in history and biography
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