Status
Available
Call number
Call number
A20.129 Rh-Th
Publication
Harare, Zimbabwe: African Publishing Group (1996)
Description
Having been sent to southern Africa as a sickly 18-year-old in 1871, by the age of 30 Cecil Rhodes was the wealthiest man in the western world. Within a further ten years a country almost the size of Europe was named in his honour - Rhodesia. This biography presents Rhodes as a man consumed by ambition, blessed with charisma, tortured by love, and threatened at the pinnacle of his power by an influential female politician, Princess Catherine Radziwill. It is a story of diamonds and gold, of a lust for power that started wars and destroyed nations, of a priceless empire carved in the image of an extraordinary man.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Gold_Gato
The Boer War attracted me to this book as I tried, once again, to understand why a particular war took place that didn't seem to need to take place, if you get my drift. Mr. Cecil Rhodes was the colossal figure behind Great Britain's grab for land and power in South Africa, and he established the
His story is extraordinary. After suffering illness as a teenager (a literal hole in the heart), Rhodes realized he had but one short life to live and he set out to become a Great Man. He chose the Cape Colony and soon was a multimillionaire, thanks to hard work and ferocious business dealings in diamonds and gold. Rhodes tricked the Matabele into losing their land and their king, while he dreamed of a British Empire running from Capetown to Nairobi.
I walked between earth and sky, and when I looked down I said, 'This earth should be English,' and when I looked up, I said, 'The English should rule the earth'.
The Boer War actually comes toward the end of the book and one does not feel sorry for either side, as the Afrikaners and the British both took that which did not belong to them. I feel the book did its duty and portrayed a man in depth, but the author puts the full blame for the later system of apartheid on to Rhodes' shoulders, which is a bit of a reach. Yes, he changed from a man who felt everyone should have the same opportunity to a man focused on empire-building, but the Boers were far more obsessed with racial superiority than Rhodes seemed to be. South Africa produced Rhodes and Mandela, two incredible bookends. Smashing country.
One imagines how Rhodes would have fit into the world of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Mark Zuckerberg, or Jeff Bezos. I think he would have been a Tech Titan with a private space fleet and a hankering for the colonization of Mars.
Book Season = Spring (when the winds blow fresh across the Cape)
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nation of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) through cunning, illicit means, and the type of outright land grabbing that would make the Americans of Manifest Destiny cringe in horror.His story is extraordinary. After suffering illness as a teenager (a literal hole in the heart), Rhodes realized he had but one short life to live and he set out to become a Great Man. He chose the Cape Colony and soon was a multimillionaire, thanks to hard work and ferocious business dealings in diamonds and gold. Rhodes tricked the Matabele into losing their land and their king, while he dreamed of a British Empire running from Capetown to Nairobi.
I walked between earth and sky, and when I looked down I said, 'This earth should be English,' and when I looked up, I said, 'The English should rule the earth'.
The Boer War actually comes toward the end of the book and one does not feel sorry for either side, as the Afrikaners and the British both took that which did not belong to them. I feel the book did its duty and portrayed a man in depth, but the author puts the full blame for the later system of apartheid on to Rhodes' shoulders, which is a bit of a reach. Yes, he changed from a man who felt everyone should have the same opportunity to a man focused on empire-building, but the Boers were far more obsessed with racial superiority than Rhodes seemed to be. South Africa produced Rhodes and Mandela, two incredible bookends. Smashing country.
One imagines how Rhodes would have fit into the world of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Mark Zuckerberg, or Jeff Bezos. I think he would have been a Tech Titan with a private space fleet and a hankering for the colonization of Mars.
Book Season = Spring (when the winds blow fresh across the Cape)
Show Less
Language
Physical description
367 p.
ISBN
0797416536 / 9780797416536