A cool and unbiased effort to hack through the undergrowth of myth, ignorance, and political correctness that continues to obscure accounts of the relationship between African kingdoms and colonial powers during the 19th century. It's also an exciting story. Edgerton (Anthropology and Psychology/UCLA; Sick Societies, 1992) uses mostly secondary sources to describe the conflict between the British and the Asante Empire that occupied modern-day Ghana. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Asante Empire was the most powerful state in West Africa, ruling over more than three million people (more than half as many as there were in the United States at the time, Edgerton points out). Its wealth was based on its gold resources, derived from some 40,000 gold mines. This enabled the kingdom to buy guns and to establish its dominion over 40 other kingdoms. It also developed a highly disciplined army and an effective bureaucracy. It was, however, dependent on slaves (both lower-born Asantes and captives from other tribes) for mining and agriculture, and its civilization was characterized by frequent public executions that amounted, in the eyes of European visitors, to human sacrifices. The British view of the Asante was heavily influenced by British traders and by some of the tribes opposed to the Asante. So, while for much of the period the Asante genuinely wished to live at peace with the British, the latter saw the Africans as bloodthirsty, untrustworthy, and an obstacle to their own imperial ambitions. Much of the book is about the British efforts to conquer the Asante, during which the British sustained several defeats and gained several narrow victories. By the 1900s, the Asante power was broken, and trade once again began to flow freely. An intelligent and compassionate account of mutual incomprehension, one-sided hostility, and a kingdom that, despite its considerable attainments, was doomed once the British had decided to bring it under control.
Pub Date: Feb. 14, 1995
ISBN: 0-02-908926-3
Page Count: 250
Publisher: Free Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1995
Hamilton proves that you can take the writer out of the blog, but you can’t take the blog out of the writer.
A meandering history of a bohemian landmark.
New York City’s Chelsea Hotel has been a hipster hangout since it opened its doors more than 100 years ago. Twain, Sartre, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs, Mapplethorpe, Warhol, Dylan and Hendrix are among the dozens of major pop-culture figures who have made the Chelsea their temporary home. In 1995, journeyman author Hamilton took up residence and soon began keeping a diary of his stay, which led to his blog “Living with Legends: Hotel Chelsea Blog,” which led to this debut book. In addition to describing what he considers to be the interesting aspects of living at the Chelsea, Hamilton introduces us to such fellow Chelsea-ites as the flamboyant Japanese graffiti artist Hiroya, faded actress Vicky and her son Keanu and a painter/con artist named Bradley. He also reacquaints us with such contemporary Chelsea celeb squatters as Sid Vicious, Dee Dee Ramone and Ethan Hawke, reporting on their connection with the hotel, then offering thumbnail sketches of their lives and careers. Poorly structured, long on chatty gossip and short on genuine insight, the book is yet another example of the increasing number of disappointing books based on blogs. While the author’s escapades, musings and mundane day-to-day activities may work in a frequently updated online forum, they come off as flat and insignificant on the page. And the biographical sketches—which, for the most part, offer only slightly more information than Wikipedia—feel like so much filler.
Hamilton proves that you can take the writer out of the blog, but you can’t take the blog out of the writer.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-56858-379-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2007
A valuable study of how British propaganda helped to bring the US into WW II, which shows too why such a study has been so slow to appear. Nobody comes out of such an examination unscathed. Americans can't feel good about an isolationism so profound that it nearly permitted Nazi Germany to conquer Europe—or about the fact that three months before Pearl Harbor the ``Mothers of America'' were pelting the British ambassador with rotten eggs. Jews cannot be happy about the lobbying they had to do, as late as 1940, to compel the American Jewish Congress to endorse the Allied cause. Admirers of FDR must cringe at the irony in Cull's report of the president's being ``infuriated'' in 1939 by British indecision in response to German aggression. The British bungled, too. The Empire's bureaucracy put every obstacle in the way of American reporting of the Blitz, which was largely responsible for turning the tide of American opinion. Yet, as Cull (History/Univ. of Birmingham, England) notes, ``the cumulative achievement of the British effort was tremendous,'' and he shows how the British changed their propaganda themes during the course of the war: from ``Britain Can Take It'' during the Blitz to ``Give Us The Tools And We Will Do The Job'' in 1941. One is still left with the thought that the change in American sentiment was due less to skillful British propaganda than to the fact that the British authorities finally allowed the American public to know what was going on. As Eric Sevareid put it, the secret to good press relations in London was simple: ``We wanted Hitler to lose.'' Cull sometimes goes beyond the evidence—as in saying that without the American lend-lease program, 1941 would have brought a British defeat. But this is a sensible, thoughtful, and—in revealing the foibles of many key actors—an often amusing book. (16 illustrations, not seen)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-19-508566-3
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1994
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