Mmm. Not one I'll be adding to my to-read list, for an entirely petty reason: these days the word "colonisation" makes me wince. Why? Because, like it or not, we're a colonising species, and today's tendency to engage in moral grandstanding about the misdeeds of colonisers makes me wonder why we - as individuals - don't pause to think about how much we're a product of the very thing we deplore. OK, I'm not suggesting that the book engages in such grandstanding; just that the colonisers and the colonised may not be so distinct from each other as we like to think.
Not petty at all! I think most of the book's flaws are rooted in a binary opposition between European colonial culture and Indigenous behaviours and practices which served to obscure a lot of moral and behavioural complexity. I tried to get that across in the review, while also acknowledging the book's positive qualities too!
Mmm. Not one I'll be adding to my to-read list, for an entirely petty reason: these days the word "colonisation" makes me wince. Why? Because, like it or not, we're a colonising species, and today's tendency to engage in moral grandstanding about the misdeeds of colonisers makes me wonder why we - as individuals - don't pause to think about how much we're a product of the very thing we deplore. OK, I'm not suggesting that the book engages in such grandstanding; just that the colonisers and the colonised may not be so distinct from each other as we like to think.
Not petty at all! I think most of the book's flaws are rooted in a binary opposition between European colonial culture and Indigenous behaviours and practices which served to obscure a lot of moral and behavioural complexity. I tried to get that across in the review, while also acknowledging the book's positive qualities too!