Heroic imperialists in Africa

Download or read book Heroic imperialists in Africa written by Berny Sèbe and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2015-11-01 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the height of ‘New Imperialism’ until the Second World War, three generations of heroes of the British and French empires in Africa were selected, manufactured and packaged for consumption by a metropolitan public eager to discover new horizons and to find comfort in the concept of a ‘civilising mission’. This book looks at imperial heroism by examining the legends of a dozen major colonial figures on both sides of the Channel, revisiting the familiar stories of Livingstone, Gordon and Kitchener from a radically new angle, and throwing light on their French counterparts, often less famous in the Anglophone world but certainly equally fascinating.