The Founder Cecil Rhodes and the Pursuit of Power |
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| Author:
| Rotberg, Robert I. |
| ISBN: | 978-0-19-504968-8 |
| Publication Date: | Oct 1988 |
| Publisher: | Oxford University Press, Incorporated
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| Book Format: | Hardback |
| List Price: | AUD $130.00 |
Book Description:
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Based on seventeen years of research, this monumental volume offers the definitive biography of one of the most controversial figures of the nineteenth century. Rhodes was truly larger than life, and this book captures that life in fascinating detail. It offers an astute portrait of Rhodes' childhood and adolescence, informed by insights from modern psychology; it vividly depicts life on a nineteenth-century African cotton farm (Rhodes' first venture) and in mining camps around...
More DescriptionBased on seventeen years of research, this monumental volume offers the definitive biography of one of the most controversial figures of the nineteenth century. Rhodes was truly larger than life, and this book captures that life in fascinating detail. It offers an astute portrait of Rhodes' childhood and adolescence, informed by insights from modern psychology; it vividly depicts life on a nineteenth-century African cotton farm (Rhodes' first venture) and in mining camps around Kimberley and the Witwatersrand; it traces the surreptitious stock buyouts and mergers that allowed Rhodes to gain control over 90% of the world's diamond production by age thirty-five; and it describes the poorly planned, disasterous raid on the Transvaal that destroyed Rhodes' reputation. Written by a leading authority on southern Africa, this biography illuminated a complex and fascinating life, a life both evil and good.