Product Description

A noble rescue mission descends into a nightmare of cruelty, starvation, and cannibalism, bringing to a close the European exploration of Africa. "Liebowitz and Pearson have written an illuminating saga of the dark days of colonialism."—National Geographic Adventure Henry Morton Stanley undertook the greatest African expedition of the nineteenth century to rescue Emin Pasha, last lieutenant of the martyred General Gordon and governor of the southern Sudan. Emin had been cut off by an Islamic jihad to the north and was at the mercy of brutal slave traders. Instead of ten months, the trip took three years and cost the lives of thousands of people, as Stanley's column hacked its way across the last great, unexplored territory in Africa.

Stanley's secret agenda was territorial expansion on the model of Leopold's Congo or the British East India Company, and what is revealed so vividly in the diaries of those who accompanied him is the dark underside of both the man and the colonial impulse. The expedition took whatever it wanted from the Africans, and when Africans were killed defending their possessions, they didn't even rate an entry in Stanley's journal. .

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #569876 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780393328738
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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From Publishers Weekly
In this engrossing chronicle of a noble rescue mission turned sour, the monstrosities come as often from its central character as they do from the forests of Equatoria that he and his officers explored. Henry Morton Stanley (1841–1904) was "an unwanted bastard" who became arguably the Victorian era's greatest explorer. Liebowitz, a retired physician, and TV documentary writer Pearson reason convincingly that the shame of Stanley's Dickensian childhood gave rise to his hunger for glory and his nonexistent empathy: almost prerequisites for the 1886–1889 mission (to rescue the governor of Equatoria, now the southern part of Sudan) that was the pretext for Stanley's expedition. The authors move to great effect between the record of events in Stanley's journal and those of his officers. The book becomes slightly tedious in its overly detailed slog through the three-year trek, in which a key colleague went mad, a good half of the expedition died and the survivors arrived too late. After almost 300 lugubrious pages, the final chapters relating the aftermath of the expedition make for quicker, if no less dark, reading. This account may have too much logistical minutiae for mass appeal, but history buffs and students of colonial and African studies will find it purposefully harrowing. Agent, Inkwell Management. (July 25)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
In 1887, Henry Stanley set out to rescue Mehemet Emin Pasha, governor of the southern Sudan, from the Islamic jihad. Known as the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, it took three years; thousands of dollars; and the lives of several hundred, if not several thousand people, to rescue Emin Pasha from Equatoria. The expedition shot, burned, and looted its way across Africa. Stanley returned to London and a hero's welcome, but later praise for Stanley was undercut by criticism and controversy about the expedition and about his book, In Darkest Africa. The authors indicate that some likened Stanley's militaristic approach to that of a latter-day conquistador, treating the native people he encountered as so many impediments to be exploited or brushed aside with whatever force was necessary. In the end, London's social and political elite believed Stanley to be a "scruffy little Welsh bastard." Liebowitz and Pearson offer an in-depth and fascinating account of this eminent explorer who, we learn, had his dark side. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
An in-depth and fascinating account of this eminent explorer who, we learn, had his dark side. (George Cohen - Booklist )

An in-depth and fascinating account of this eminent explorer who, we learn, had his dark side. -- Booklist, George Cohen

Customer Reviews

A Vivid Tale of Arrogance on Adventure
This book tells the story of a relief expedition led by Henry Stanley, of Stanley-and-Livingstone fame, to rescue an African ruler/administrator, the Amin Pasha, from military conquest and possibly worse.

The background is the defeat and the killing of Chinese Gordon in Khartoum. The same forces that dispensed with Gordon threatened the regime of the Amin Pasha, farther south. Despite his title, the Admin Pasha was a European, German by birth, who had reinvented himself and acquired a post of administrative responsibility in the Ottoman Empire. As revolutionary forces swept through the region, the Pasha's control and safety were threatened. An England, wracked with guilt over the death of Chinese Gordon, was filled with calls to save the Pasha from a similar fate, and the job fell to Henry Stanley.

This paragraph understates the complexity of the real situation. A number of sponsors had a hand in backing Stanley's expedition, each with their own separate political and business agendas. But the bottom line is that off Stanley went, and this is the story of his expedition.

What this book is really about is the adventure, the arrogance, the occasional accomplishments, the heavy dose of disasters, and finally the folly of this so-called "rescue" expedition. By the time Stanley made his way across the continent to reach the Pasha, his forces had been shredded and were probably in worse shape than the Pasha's own.

The book succeeds very well in conveying the atmosphere of danger and adventure that filled such 19th century explorations of Africa by Europeans. There is here a true flavor of Disney's Jungle Cruise attraction. It's a world of thick jungles, winding rivers, rough rapids, impassable waterfalls, exotic wildlife, and hostile natives. Much of this is the image of Africa left behind through the pens of explorer/promoters such as Stanley.

Another notable aspect of the book is its unsparing treatment of Lord Stanley himself. The authors are absolutely unstinting in portraying him as mercurial, arrogant, absolutely disdainful of the safety and perspective of others, reckless with his subordinates' lives, and often out of touch with reality -- even as he is an undeniably brillant explorer. One reads the book often in sadness over the young, eager soldiers' lives that were so callously abused by Stanley.

And yet Stanley himself still comes across as a complex character. The reader can judge how much to blame his eventual conduct on his early life, but that early life was straight ouf of a Dickens novel. Born out of wedlock to a domestic servant, never knowing the true identitity of his father, left behind by his mother with her family, kicked out of that family upon the marriage of his uncle, sent out to a foster family, and then abandoned by that family at a workhouse. Worst of all was the means by which this last was done: he was told he was being brought home to his natural family, the hard truth not being revealed to him other than by abandonment at the workhouse as he awaited his deliverance. For Stanley to have made something of himself after such a childhood is remarkable, and his selfish insecurity is certainly explicable, if not excusable.

The book is a good read, gripping and informative. To the extent that it has limits to its appeal, it is due to factors beyond the authors' control. For example, I would have loved to have known more about the individual Africans in the employ of the Stanley expedition, where the book provides intimate portraits only of the Europeans. But unfortunately it is a hazard of covering this historical period that the Africans' individual traits went largely unrecorded.

I read this book soon after reading The River of Doubt, with which it provides an interesting parallel. Both concern dangerous jungle river expeditions, although here the lead character is as repellent as is Roosevelt's character compelling. I give a slight nod to The River of Doubt, but they're both excellent books, and I believe they both fully deserve five stars.

A Historical Heart Of Darkness in Africa
This account of Henry Stanley's final exploration through central Africa on a dubious rescue mission reads like a novel. Like many explorers of that century, Mr. Stanley was full of courage and perseverance but was short on empathy and common sense. The mission was all that mattered, regardless of the human cost and that was expensive for the local natives and to his rescue party.

There are excellent maps found prior to the narrative which helps orient the reader as to the progress of the expedition. The authors tie up all the loose ends in an epilogue and hint strongly that the rescue mission was not worth the price paid in the human lives lost. "The Last Expedition" is a fast-paced, readable, and definative account of this epic three year journey through the unexplored Congo.

Oh, the Pain and Suffering
I realize all explorers subject themselves, and those who accompany them, to the rigors of the trip, but this is an expedition I was glad to be reading about than actually being there. Henry Morton Stanley wanted to "rescue" Emin Pasha who had been cut off from civilization for over three years. Traveling through the Ituri forest in the heart of the Congo would be enough to make anyone wish they had stayed home. Imagine woodticks lodged in the nostrils of your nose and having to be torn loose with tweezers, or worms entering your body through your feet or by drinking contaminated water. The ever-present enemy lurking in the forest plotting your demise, and starvation always a reminder. Woe unto you who disobeyed in any way or your already weakened body would be the beneficiary of a number of lashes with a whip. True, the trip took much longer (over three years) than expected (ten months), but after all this death and suffering, Emin Pasha decided to remain in Africa. Stanley wrote a self-serving book about this trip entitled In Darkest Africa, in which he placed blame on others, but not himself. He was denied his final wish of being buried in London's Westminster Abbey next to his hero, Livingstone. It turned out the request was denied because of the violence that accompanied his explorations as contrasted with Livingstone. Stanley and his entourage did explore parts of Africa unseen by civilized humans, and he must be given credit for that. If reading about explorers undergoing human suffering appeals to you this is a book you will enjoy. Just be glad you're reading about it, and not there yourself.