This book was very interesting to read. It consists of stories written by different authors that are all about South Africa and its justice system. My personal favorite story in this book was called, "the toilet." Sometimes the stories dragged on and were annoying, but overall its a fun read.

In this book the story of each person is vividly told. This book is a true tear jerker, but in a very good way. I beleive that it should be read in every classroom in the world.

Peter Stiff has written an excellent account of the evolution of landmine protected vehicles in southern africa. Apart from an initial section on early armoured vehicles and their protective capabilities, the book focuses on the development thru trial, error and experience of mine-protected vehicles, firstly in Rhodesia in response to the terrorist mining campaign and then in South Africa as the terrorist threat their escalated.

The book contains a large number of photographes of the various vehicles that were developed and used, culminating with the current South African mine-protected armoured fighting vehicles which are some of the best available in the world. All in all, it's a very good read while the accompanying photo's really make the book.

If you don't have this book or have read it, you are simply not on top of the world of mine, countermine and counter-ambush. This book should be purchased en masse by the U.S. Army and made a standard student text at Combat Engineer School. Peter Stiff shows how the armies in the southern africa area SOLVED the land mine, automatic weapons fire ambush, and if we want to avoid learning the same lessons all over again at a high cost in destroyed lives, we should read and heed this book's ideas into our own Army. This is NOT being done as combat engineering concerns have been marginalized by armor/infantry branch officers dominating decision-making even though the LAND MINE is the biggest killer of our Soldiers since Vietnam.

I don't want this to sound anti-Christian, because I definitely am not. But the religious message gets in the way of what would otherwise be an interesting story.

I guess there are times in biography writing when the sheer magnitude of the subject overshadows the book. However, Rob Mackenzie captures this life with pure genius. As he takes us on the chronological journey of David Livingstone's life, we are deeply saddened by the utter despair of his relentless failings and hopeless circumstances, only to reach to the top and celebrate in the victory of a simple move forward. He truly captures the love and compassion that Dr. Livingstone had for a forgotten people and shames us with the recounting of his unfeigned commitment. The road to Africa's salvation is surely paved with the blood of this man and the content challenges us to dare to take that road after him. When the author describes the final scene--with David Livingstone crumpled over, dying silently while in prayer, I am in tears and like the natives, afraid to consider what to do next. I took this biography personally and I am unworthy to even walk in his shadow, you see, I am a missionary in Zambia. Every success I experience now, was properly paid for and recounted in this book.

Reading this book on David Livingstone's life has really impacted my life in an incredible way! I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to be spiritually challenged in getting the gospel of Jesus Christ out into the world. Having been born and brought up in Zimbabwe as the child of missionaries I feel that we owe so much to Mr Livingstone and many others for "sewing the seed"and giving their lives for the gospel in a beautiful but hard land.

...I bought this book to make plans for a trip to Zambia but the chapter about this country is only 40 pages long, both verbose and superficial. Don't get fooled by the "Adventuring" in the title, unless your idea of adventure is to hop by plane from lodge to lodge at $200 or $300 a night. More importantly, except for the park entrance fees, this book doesn't list any price at all (I got them from two other, excellent, travel guides). Comments on cheaper accomodations are few and disenchanted. The maps are equally few and over-simplified (the roads don't even appear!...) Finally, I looked at the chapters about the other countries and it certainly didn't change my opinion about this book. Note also that the date of the last edition (October 97) makes it relatively outdated.

This book is an outstanding resource to be read prior to traveling to South Africa. It covers many different aspects of what the experience will entail. These include the history, etiquette, positives and negatives of each type of travel, various diseases and safety precautions one should take. In addition, he thoroughly delivers every aspect of each south african country...ie. countryside, animals, weather, and history. This book in interesting, exciting, and educational!

This book is full of interesting and pertinent travel information; it is a MUST for anyone interested in game-viewing and travelling in southern Africa. The author gives best times to travel depending on what you want to see, and for each country, lists brief history/present politics, places to stay--easily accessible to remote--and how to get there and what you may see. He also gives a comprehensive packing list, medical info, and tips on game viewing. Out of the 4 books I bought on southern Africa, this is the one I referred to most often. This book, coupled with The Kingdon Field Guide to African Mammals, is an invaluable southern Africa traveller's necessity.

This book is nicely organized. The animals are separated into their prospective families. This is especially helpful for the scientific minded reader. While on safari if I see an animal that is most likely a carnivore, I will know exactly where to look it up.

The pictures are very clear and the description focuses on the distinguishing characters of each species. The descriptions are very logical and easy to follow... i.e. the blaze on the nose of this antelope is continuous therefore, it is species A, where the blaze on the nose of the next antelope (which looks just like species A) is not continuous, therefore it is species B.

The is book has become a diary for collecting plainsgame in Southern Africa. I have kept notes and records in this book to track animals I have collected and those remaining on my wish list.

Additionally I recommend this book for those who are on their first few trips to So. Africa for a hunting expedition or site-seeing holidays.

This is a decent book because I love anthropology, ethnobotony, and learning about the Bushman. The beginning of this book was great, the author discusses how he and his group fall upon a thirsty group of Bushman. That part is great because it describes the interactions between the author and the Bushman. One of the author's mate on the trip, Dabe, a Bushman himself, also offers amazing commentary when they run into the Bushman.

However, in the middle, who knows what is going on. And the end was so confusing, but sorta okay. Van der Post discusses Bushman creation tales which are good in themselves because most books overlook the spiritual aspect of the Bushman--but the tales need more explanation--Van der Post talks over your head and says things don't need an explanation when they really do.

I would recommend reading 'Nisa, The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman' and 'The Harmless People' which both can be purchased online here!

Sir Laurens van der Post has a gift for story telling that we should all explore. The customs and myths of the Bushmen are simple, complex, spiritual, entertaining but always there is a lesson to be learned. This book will feed your mind and you will find yourself through Laurens' craft eager for more. If you have shut down your heart and your imagination, feel the beat of this book and get your pulse back.

In the Reagan years there were only two things about South Africa that radicals, liberals and conservatives would all agree upon without immediately hurling insults and solid objects at each other. First - Apartheid is a disgusting ideology, second - Undersecretary of state for Africa, Chester Crocker, is doing the wrong thing. The remarkable fact remains that this man stayed in office for eight years, he was with Reagan from start to finish. What exactly did he do to enrage the american public from left to right and get away with it for eight years? How come Reagan didn't part with him though Crocker was far from a die-hard Reaganaut? Part of the answer is to be found in this book. As undersecretary of state for Africa Chester Arthur Crocker was Reagans man in Africa from 1981-1989. Focusing on his late succes in negotiating a peace settlement in Namibia Dr. Crocker stubbornly refuses to reflect upon the failure of his brainchild, the concept of Constructive Engagement - a complex programme for US actions towards the Southern African region as a whole, aimed at speeding up the process of abolishing apartheid in South Africa. This makes the book most interesting for the things not included, that again means that you have to have an idea about what Crocker has excluded before the book becomes interesting, and this little chain of deductions leads us forward to the conclusion: This book is a must and not at all dull reading for students of US-African relations in the 80's. For everyone else it'll be a complete waste of time and money.

Dr. Crocker's lucid account of his eight-plus years as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs offers valuable insight into the complex world of foreign policymaking and diplomacy. His central achievement--and the focus of this book--is the Namibia-Angola peace process, an arduous series of events involving pariah states (Cuba and apartheid-era South Africa), guerrilla movements, ideologues and political opportunism. Crocker swam among these sharks for nearly a decade in order to produce the December 1988 agreements signed by Angola, Cuba and South Africa that resulted in the creation of an independent Namibia and the withdrawal of foreign forces from Namibia and Angola.

Crocker's memoir is a rich history of a transformative era in southern Africa, but it also contains two valuable lessons for today's policymakers. First, a well-designed long-run strategy can work if pursued consistently and vigorously. Crocker outlined the bargain behind the 1988 agreements as early as 1981: Cuban troops exit Angola, South Africans end support for Angolan rebels, independent Namibia created. Although this strategy took nearly a decade to come to fruition, its logic and the diplomacy behind it never wavered. With today's policymakers treating six months as long-term, this persistence was amazing. The second lesson that Crocker brings out is the particular importance of regional dynamics in Africa. Perhaps more than any area outside of the Balkans, African conflicts readily spill over borders and inflame neighboring countries. One need look no further than today's Congo to see that this is still the case. Crocker demonstrated that it is possible to get all the relevant players involved without losing control of the process, if the strategy is sound and well-implemented. This regional dynamic can also work in a positive direction, as the increased stability in Angola, Namibia and Mozambique provided South Africa with a less-threatening external environment in which to dismantle apartheid.

Crocker makes all of these points in his compelling and readable book. Highly recommended.

Robert Blake's 'A History of Rhodesia', or as the reviewer prior has pointedly noted, mostly Southern Rhodesia, has earned its place in Rhodesian historiography. There are works which are better suited for those whose grasp of Rhodesian history is cursory. The various works authored by Gann (whom Blake rightly considers to be authoritative heavily relies upon in this book), for example, amongst others would likely be better suited.

Blake tends to be rather longwhinded, and at times even tedius, a concern which fortunately he is highly conscious of, and in turn he is often compelled to keep this in check, sparing the reader even deeper tediums (if anything, certainly a testament to his vast knowledge in this historical field). Blake also displays sometimes a lack of tact (i.e. "Africans are not the best servants"), though never racialism (he is not one, I strongly suspect).

This book by the well-known British Conservative historian, in spite of its often somewhat tiresome emphasis on the constitutional political-legal (and even procedural) dimensions of Rhodesian history, also provides us with poignant insights into the economic and class; sociological and demographic; anthropological and cultural facets of the chartered company -turned- self-governing colony -turned- federation- -turned- UDI-Republicanist.

In one instance, Blake juxtaposes and synthesizes between Australia and New Zealand, the United States and Canada, and the Republic of South Africa and Rhodesia (and, of course, the increasingly intermediatory role - though not irrelevence - of Great Britain in this respect). How Rhodesia differs and stands unique in this regard is one area which the author attempts to elucidate (often with some measure of success). As much as this mildly lengthy book is written in an often longwhinded and sometimes rather dreary fashion, it is also equally rich (content-wise as well as philologically) and engaging. It is, inspite of all its shortcomings, an insightful work, which is in no in shortage of poignant passages, both original and cited. This makes 'A history of Rhodeisa', ultimately, worthwhile notwithstanding some of the aforementioned drawbacks.

To sum up, Robert Blake's 'A History of Rhodesia' is not the first (nor even third) book I would recommend for those interested to learn about Rhodesian history from scratch, not to mention UDI-Rhodesia -turned- Zimbabwe era. Not as seminal as some might claim, nonetheless, it is a recommended read. Its flow, while sometimes somewhat prohibitive, is also often quite facsinating, and less freqently, even nearly-profound. Blake is informative, a talented writer and a compotent academician. It is, then, a work not so much essential, but nevertheless, one which those who possess some familiarity with the subject are likely to value, perhaps even cherish.

Robert Blake's History of Rhodesia is an expertly written account of Rhodesia's past. Blake artistically focused upon the European history of the former colony from the 1890s until the early 1960s. He briefly covers the UDI period of Rhodesia, but his best writing recounts the political events that defined Rhodesia before 1965.

Blake beautifully articulated the political history of Rhodesia, but perhaps, like other liberals, he missed the major point. He failed to account for the African perspective of Rhodesia's turbulent history and how it influenced the Europeans. If Blake had the advantage of today's historical perspective, his book would undoubtably have a different voice.

A History of Rhodesia is a well written book that provides a thorough acccount of (southern) Rhodesia's history. I recommend this book to those interested in detailed southern African history.

I spent a year in South Africa in 98/99. The SA guide wasnt available before I left and I really wish it was. I saw it through others who came over after I arrived and it had current info and stuff you wouldnt find inthe other guides. Lonley Planet is good to have but I've found that a good chunk of the info is out of date. I'm going back to the area in June and the first book I got was the most recent edition of Lets Go South Africa. If your headin to southern africa get the Lonely Planet BUT dont forget to leave without your copy of Lets Go SA, its a tool you cant do without.

I visited South Africa in May of 2000. I had the Let's Go 2000 South Africa book with me and it was like my bible. It explained customs and suggested the best places to visit. I also visited Namibia and Botswana and this book was a tremendous help. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone visiting South Africa...you'll love it. You'll need it!

I took over a month to finish reading this BORING BOOK because everytime I started a page I would fall asleep in the middle of that same page.It is such a shame that I HAD NO CHOICE BUT TO READ THIS [STUFF] because I had to do this book for one of my most important exams.Mrs.Lessing must have been going through some sort of madness or sickness I assume while she was writing this sorry excuse for a novel.God help us all who must read this book!

We meet Martha Quest as a resentful 15 year old girl, growing up on a farm in Africa. As noted adequately here, this is the first book in her Children of Violence series-- held by many to be Lessings most important body of work (with the exception of _The Golden Notebook_).

I'm one of these Lessing fans from back in the day when _The Golden Notebook_ changed my life, and I haven't read much of her other work. I was impressed by Martha Quest-- it falls in the category of our classic coming-of-age novels, and as such stands well on its own as a novel. Lessing's Martha is at times so frustrating you want to shake her, but I think that's typical for the age of the character portrayed. Martha is all sharp edges-- she can't seem to fit with her parents, the men around her, the people with whom she tries to interact. With the blindness of her age, she's able to acutely feel how hard she has it, without really feeling the struggle of others around her who may have an even more difficult time. By turns infuriating and attractive, it can be painful to read Quest's story precisely because so it's so human as to be disturbingly familiar.

A should-read book.

All pleasure: fast, furious, and completely modern. One of the best of the past century.