Format:
1 online resource (855 pages)
ISBN:
9780199770342
Content:
A tall, robust-looking, imposing figure, Cecil John Rhodes was a man of many contradictions. Rhodes, the dreamy idealist, called his copy of The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius his "most precious possession," while Rhodes, the ruthless businessman, firmly believed in the adage, "every man has his price." He supported invidious racial laws in South Africa, and invented and sponsored the world-renowned Rhodes Scholarships. Although a man of unprepossessing intellectual talents, he became one of the leading figures in the English-speaking world, the confidant of Queen Victoria and Kaiser Wilhelm, a man of vast wealth and worldwide influence. Based on seventeen years of research, this monumental volume, written by a noted authority on Southern Africa, offers the definitive biography of one of the most controversial figures of the nineteenth century. Vividly capturing the life of a man who was truly larger than life, Robert Rotberg explores Rhodes' childhood and adolescence; depicts his life in mining camps around Kimberley and the Witwatersrand; traces the surreptitious stock buyouts and mergers that allowed Rhodes to gain control over ninety percent of the world's diamond production by age thirty-five; describes his campaigns against African populations that allowed him to establish Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia); and discusses the poorly planned, disastrous raid on the Transvaal that destroyed Rhodes' reputation. The Founder illuminates a complex and fascinating life of both evil and good.
Content:
Cover -- Contents -- The Grandest Opportunities": A Preface -- List of Maps -- List of Illustrations -- 1 "Like the Sun on a Granite Hill": The Man and the Mystery -- 2 "A Very Bright Little Boy": Life in the Vicarage -- 3 "I Am in Charge Here": The Cotton Fields, a Testing -- 4 "Digging, Sifting, and Sorting from Morning till Night": Scraping Together the First Riches -- 5 "I Think You Will Do": A Band of Brothers amid the Dreaming Spires -- 6 "The Richest Community in the World": Pursuing Position and Fortune -- 7 "I Don't Have Many Principles": Forging Political and Personal Alliances -- 8 "Annex Land, Not Natives": Forestalling Bismarck and Kruger-An Imperial Prologue -- 9 "If Only We Have the Pluck": Seeking Dominion over Diamonds and Gold -- 10 "We Are to Be the Lords over Them": Fashioning a Distinctive Destiny as the Solitary Springbok -- 11 "Giving a Man the Whole of Australia": Employing the Sinews of War in the North -- 12 "The Power of One Man": A Rush of Cynicism and Conspiracy-The Acquisition of Rhodesia -- 13 "A Man Might Be Proud": Assaults Across the Zambezi -- 14 "To Preserve the Landed Classes": Ends and Means, The First Premiership -- 15 "I Must Have My Lions and Tigers": Creating a Castle and Courting the World -- 16 "The Predatory Instincts of Our Race": Making War in Rhodesia -- 17 "A Dominant Race Among a Native Race": The Second Premiership -- 18 "Simply a Fairy Tale": The Money Game and Other Profitable Pursuits -- 19 "Jameson Must Be Mad": The Raid and Its Consequences -- 20 "The Eyes Are White": The Risings and Redemption -- 21 "What a Man He Is!": Across the Zambezi and Through Africa -- 22 "Equal Rights for Civilized Men": The Last Hurrah and the Guns of October -- 23 "Sex Enters into Great Matters of State": Of Dreams and Deeds -- 24 "You Like to Put Your House in Order": The End of the Beginning.
Note:
Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources
Additional Edition:
ISBN 9780195066685
Additional Edition:
Erscheint auch als Druck-Ausgabe ISBN 9780195066685
Language:
English
URL:
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/kxp/detail.action?docID=716693
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