Africa & History - A historical look at the Zulu nation portrays a politically sophisticated, administratively integrated, and militarily effective polity which was overthrown by the British Empire only because it was a pre-industrial society which lacked firepower
África & História - Uma análise histórica da nação Zulu retrata uma organização política politicamente sofisticada, administrativamente integrada e militarmente eficaz, que foi derrotada pelo Império Britânico apenas por ser uma sociedade pré-industrial carente de poder de fogo.
‘THE RISE & FALL OF THE ZULU NATION’
By John Laband
Edition by Arms and Armour
South Africa 1997
Livro com 518 páginas, muito ilustrado e em muito bom estado de conservação. Excelente.
De muito difícil localização.
RARO.
The Author / O Autor:
“JOHN LABAND is a South African historian and writer, specialising in Anglo-Zulu and Boers wars. He is Professor Emeritus and Chair of History at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada, and is a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University, England.”
Da contracapa:
"The kingdom forged by Shaka kaSenzangakhona was once one of the most powerful and sophisticated black states in Africa. In its mere sixty years of independent existence it weathered rebellions by discontented subjects and ambitious princes, intrusions by traders, missionaries and land-hungry settlers, and a determined invasion by the Voortrekkers. It took the British at the height of their imperial power six months and a full military campaign to bring the kingdom down. Thereafter, Zululand was broken up, consigned to bitter civil war, and eventually annexed piecemeal, its land given over to white farmers, in a poignant saga of humiliation and loss. . To understand contested developments in KwaZulu-Natal today, it is imperative to comprehend the troubled course of Zululand as it was wrested away from its own kings and passed into the hands of colonial masters. This book provides the key".
About the book:
“South African historian Laband is a distinguished scholar of Zulu history whose work remains unknown in the U.S. outside specialist circles. That should change with the appearance of this book. Initially published in South Africa in 1995 as Rope of Sand, this is the finest analysis to date of the Zulu kingdom's origins and nature, its complex internal politics and the conflicts with Boer and Briton that finally laid it low. Without neglecting such cultural elements as the importance for the Zulu warrior of purification after battle, which frequently influenced the conduct of campaigns, Laband treats the Zulu polity in a historical rather than an anthropological context. He demonstrates that, at its height, the Zulu kingdom was the most politically sophisticated, administratively integrated and militarily effective polity, black or white, south of the Zambesi. Laband emphasizes the central political and ritual role of the king while establishing the cultural restraints on royal power and the constant challenges from royal relatives and other great chiefs. Not only Shaka but his successors, notably Mpande and Ctsehwayo, emerged as skillful politicians and sophisticated diplomats. Laband's perceptive analysis of the relationship between war and politics in the Zulu system shows that the Zulu kingdom neither decayed from within nor conquered itself to destruction. Instead, it was overthrown by a British Empire whose superiority in a specific aspect of warmaking--the application of firepower to the battlefield--proved too much for a pre-industrial society by no means at a dead end when it faced the Gatlings and Martinis at Ulundi. Illustrations.”
Do ÍNDICE: / CONTENTS:
List of Maps
PREFACE
Acknowledgments
PROLOGUE
PART I
PART II
PART III
PART IV
EPILOGUE
Glossary
Notes
Picture Acknowledgments and sources
Select Bibliography
Preço: 62,50€;
