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Mungo Park's Ghost : The Haunted Hubris of British Explorers in Nineteenth-Century Africa by Dane Kennedy (2024, Hardcover)

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Mungo Park's Ghost : The Haunted Hubris of British Explorers in Nineteenth-century Africa, Hardcover by Kennedy, Dane, ISBN 1009392980, ISBN-13 9781009392983, Brand New, Free shipping in the US "The British sent two large expeditions to Africa in 1816, one to follow the Niger River to its outlet, the other to trace the Congo River to its source. The forgotten story of their disastrous failures is a revealing case study of the hubris that spurred the exploration of Africa"--

About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherCambridge University Press

ISBN-101009392980

ISBN-139781009392983

eBay Product ID (ePID)17060624961

Product Key Features

Book TitleMungo Park's Ghost : the Haunted Hubris of British Explorers in Nineteenth-Century Africa

Number of Pages270 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year2024

TopicEurope / Great Britain / General

IllustratorYes

GenreHistory

AuthorDane Kennedy

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height0.7 in

Item Length8.8 in

Item Width5.8 in

Additional Product Features

LCCN2023-017047

Reviews'Dane Kennedy is the best historian of imperial exploration writing today. Mungo Park's Ghost foregrounds African actors and states in the story of British intervention in West Africa, to deliver fresh insights into the dynamics of slavery and anti-slavery and an unvarnished exposé of the overweening power of imperial hubris.' Maya Jasanoff, Coolidge Professor of History, Harvard University, 'Few historians can match Dane Kennedy's mastery of British imperial mythology. In this witty, gripping and often tragicomic history of failed expeditions in search of a confluence of the Congo and the Niger, Kennedy shows the intricacies and influence of British scientific societies, the complexities of imperial masculinity and the extent of British imperial ambitions in West Africa in the early nineteenth century. Attentive to the many ways that hired African labourers and local kings and chiefs held the lives of British military officers in their hands, and to how West African politics shaped the expeditions, Kennedy explores the gulf between imperial grandiosity, the colossal reputation and mysterious death of Mungo Park, and the fly-blown, shambolic reality of British imperialism in West Africa in the early nineteenth century. Mungo Park haunted the British empire in unexpected ways, and this excellent book makes an elegant case for the importance of close attention to 'heroic failure' in British imperial and colonial history.' Padraic X. Scanlan, Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources, University of Torontol and colonial history.' Padraic X. Scanlan, Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources, University of Torontol and colonial history.' Padraic X. Scanlan, Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources, University of Torontol and colonial history.' Padraic X. Scanlan, Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources, University of Toronto, 'Mungo Park's Ghost is a brilliantly executed account of the most ambitious expeditionary bids ever made by the British government to explore the African continent - and almost certainly the most disastrous. Written with verve and rigour, Kennedy wonderfully documents geographical exploration as imperial hubris.' Charles W. J. Withers, Professor Emeritus in University of Edinburgh and former Geographer Royal for Scotland

Dewey Edition23

Dewey Decimal910.92

Table Of ContentIntroduction: Mungo Park's ghost; 1. In the shadow of the slave trade; 2. Grand ambitions; 3. Hopes and hubris; 4. Futility and folly; 5. The second time as farce; 6. Inquest; 7. Eating the country; Bibliography; Index.

SynopsisIn 1816 the British sent two large, ambitious expeditions to Africa, one to follow the Niger River to its outlet, the other to trace the Congo River to its source. Their shared goal was to complete the unfinished mission of Mungo Park, who had disappeared during a journey to determine whether the Niger and the Congo were the same river. Both quests ended disastrously and were soon forgotten. Telling the full story of these failed expeditions for the first time, Dane Kennedy argues that they provide fresh insight into British ambitions in Africa. He places them in the contexts of the imperial rivalry with France, the slave trade and the abolition campaign, and the independent power wielded by African states and peoples. He also shows that they were haunted by the same sense of hubris that would afflict many of the expeditions that followed. This hubris was Mungo Park's ghost., The British sent two large expeditions to Africa in 1816, one to follow the Niger River to its outlet, the other to trace the Congo River to its source. The forgotten story of their disastrous failures is a revealing case study of the hubris that spurred the exploration of Africa.

LC Classification NumberDT356.K46 2024