Howard W. French. (2007). A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

Howard W. French. 2007. A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

Howard W. French, A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2007.

Howard W. French. A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2007.

OverDrive Product Record

images

• cover:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/0111-1/{F6CBFECA-C26C-4C44-A1E9-1A3020E98804}Img100.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• thumbnail:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/0111-1/{F6CBFECA-C26C-4C44-A1E9-1A3020E98804}Img200.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover150Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/0111-1/F6C/BFE/CA/{F6CBFECA-C26C-4C44-A1E9-1A3020E98804}Img150.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover300Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/0111-1/F6C/BFE/CA/{F6CBFECA-C26C-4C44-A1E9-1A3020E98804}Img400.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg

formats

1. • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9780307424303
     2. • type: PublisherCatalogNumber
        • value: 56266
   • name: Adobe EPUB eBook
   • id: ebook-epub-adobe
2. • identifiers:
     1. • type: ASIN
        • value: B000XUDHTI
     2. • type: PublisherCatalogNumber
        • value: 56266
   • name: Kindle Book
   • id: ebook-kindle
3. • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9780307424303
     2. • type: PublisherCatalogNumber
        • value: 56266
   • name: OverDrive Read
   • id: ebook-overdrive

otherFormatIdentifiers

1. • type: ISBN
   • value: 1400030277

mediaType

eBook

primaryCreator

• role: Author
• name: Howard W. French

title

A Continent for the Taking

dateAdded

2016-12-01T19:22:00Z

contentDetails

1. • href: https://link.overdrive.com/?websiteID=141&titleID=449338
   • type: text/html
   • account:
     • name: Sacramento Public Library (CA)
     • id: 1151

sortTitle

Continent for the Taking The Tragedy and Hope of Africa

crossRefId

449338

subtitle

The Tragedy and Hope of Africa

id

f6cbfeca-c26c-4c44-a1e9-1a3020e98804

starRating

5

OverDrive MetaData

isPublicDomain

False

formats

1. • fileName: AContinentfortheTaki_9780307424303_449338
   • partCount: 0
   • fileSize: 2327854
   • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9780307424303
     2. • type: PublisherCatalogNumber
        • value: 56266
   • rights:
     1. • type: Copying
        • value: 0
     2. • type: Printing
        • value: 0
     3. • type: Lending
        • value: 0
     4. • type: ReadAloud
        • value: 0
     5. • type: ExpirationRights
        • value: 0
   • name: Adobe EPUB eBook
   • isReadAlong: False
   • id: ebook-epub-adobe
   • onSaleDate: 12/18/2007
   • samples:
     1. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-epub-adobe
        • url: https://excerpts.cdn.overdrive.com/FormatType-410/0111-1/F6C/BFE/CA/ContinentfortheTakingTheTragedyandHop9780307424303.epub
     2. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-overdrive
        • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=F6CBFECA-C26C-4C44-A1E9-1A3020E98804&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
2. • fileName: AContinentfortheTaki_449338
   • partCount: 0
   • fileSize: 0
   • identifiers:
     1. • type: PublisherCatalogNumber
        • value: 56266
     2. • type: ASIN
        • value: B000XUDHTI
   • name: Kindle Book
   • isReadAlong: False
   • id: ebook-kindle
   • onSaleDate: 12/18/2007
   • samples:
     1. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-epub-adobe
        • url: https://excerpts.cdn.overdrive.com/FormatType-410/0111-1/F6C/BFE/CA/ContinentfortheTakingTheTragedyandHop9780307424303.epub
     2. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-overdrive
        • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=F6CBFECA-C26C-4C44-A1E9-1A3020E98804&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
3. • fileName: AContinentfortheTaki_9780307424303_449338
   • partCount: 0
   • fileSize: 0
   • identifiers:
     1. • type: ISBN
        • value: 9780307424303
     2. • type: PublisherCatalogNumber
        • value: 56266
   • name: OverDrive Read
   • isReadAlong: False
   • id: ebook-overdrive
   • onSaleDate: 12/18/2007
   • samples:
     1. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-epub-adobe
        • url: https://excerpts.cdn.overdrive.com/FormatType-410/0111-1/F6C/BFE/CA/ContinentfortheTakingTheTragedyandHop9780307424303.epub
     2. • source: From the book
        • formatType: ebook-overdrive
        • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=F6CBFECA-C26C-4C44-A1E9-1A3020E98804&.epub-sample.overdrive.com

keywords

1. • value: Africa
2. • value: politics
3. • value: Biography
4. • value: spiritual
5. • value: War
6. • value: Historical
7. • value: African history
8. • value: african
9. • value: Colonialism
10. • value: Journalism
11. • value: World History
12. • value: Military
13. • value: International Politics
14. • value: Geopolitics
15. • value: British History
16. • value: biographies
17. • value: History
18. • value: history of africa
19. • value: government
20. • value: political philosophy
21. • value: social science
22. • value: political science
23. • value: world politics
24. • value: history books
25. • value: political books
26. • value: historical books
27. • value: gifts for history buffs
28. • value: Settler Colonialism
29. • value: political science books
30. • value: history gifts
31. • value: history buff gifts
32. • value: history lovers gifts
33. • value: history teacher gifts
34. • value: africa history

creators

1. • role: Author
   • fileAs: French, Howard W.
   • bioText: Howard W. French is a senior writer for the New York Times. After teaching at the University of Ivory Coast in the early 1980s, he began his journalism career writing about Africa for the Washington Post, Africa News, The Economist and numerous other publications. Since 1986, he has reported for the Times from Central America, the Caribbean, West and Central Africa, Japan, Korea, and now China. In 1997, his coverage of the fall of Mobuto Sese Seko won the Overseas Press Club of America's award for best newspaper interpretation of foreign affairs. French was born in Washington, D.C., and now lives in Shanghai with his wife and their two children.
     www.howardfrench.com
   • name: Howard W. French

imprint

Vintage

publishDate

2007-12-18T00:00:00-05:00

isOwnedByCollections

True

title

A Continent for the Taking

fullDescription

In A Continent for the Taking Howard W. French, a veteran correspondent for The New York Times, gives a compelling firsthand account of some of Africa’s most devastating recent history–from the fall of Mobutu Sese Seko, to Charles Taylor’s arrival in Monrovia, to the genocide in Rwanda and the Congo that left millions dead. Blending eyewitness reportage with rich historical insight, French searches deeply into the causes of today’s events, illuminating the debilitating legacy of colonization and the abiding hypocrisy and inhumanity of both Western and African political leaders.
While he captures the tragedies that have repeatedly befallen Africa’s peoples, French also opens our eyes to the immense possibility that lies in Africa’s complexity, diversity, and myriad cultural strengths. The culmination of twenty-five years of passionate exploration and understanding, this is a powerful and ultimately hopeful book about a fascinating and misunderstood continent.

reviews

1. • premium: False
   • source: Chicago Tribune
   • content:

     "Lively . . . vivid . . . This is the best book about Africa to come out in some time."

2. • premium: False
   • source: San Francisco Chronicle
   • content: "An often riveting eyewitness account of the chaos enveloping West Africa in the 1990s."
3. • premium: False
   • source: Washington Monthly
   • content: "Vivid, disquieting. . . . French's engagement with the continent goes far deeper than most Africa-based correspondents."
4. • premium: False
   • source: Foreign Affairs
   • content: "Remarkable. . . . This deeply empathetic account of a region in crisis deserves to be read widely."
5. • premium: False
   • source: The Globe & Mail (Toronto)
   • content: "[French's] skill as a writer -- in particular his telling anecdotes, fascinating historical narratives and prescriptions for a complex continent he clearly loves -- is compelling. . . . He succeeds brilliantly in helping readers understand the continent and its people."
6. • premium: False
   • source: The New York Review of Books
   • content: "Exhilarating for its frankness. . . . A triumph of passionate reporting."
7. • premium: False
   • source: The Nation
   • content: "A passionate, heartbreaking, and ultimately heartbroken book. . . . [French] has a deeper and more profound connection to the continent than most journalists."
8. • premium: False
   • source: Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
   • content: "A brilliant and nuanced meditation on the complexities of contemporary Africa. Essential reading for those of us who live Africa and for all those who wish to gain a fuller understanding of a continent that is sprawling, mysterious, and endlessly fascinating. Howard French's voice is both fresh and enlightening."
9. • premium: False
   • source: The Washington Post Book World
   • content: "Persuasive. . . . The tone is grim, but French also finds an unquenchable African spirit."
10. • premium: False
    • source: Charlayne Hunter Gault , author of In My Place
    • content: "Even when you've been there or know the basic facts, Howard French takes you to Africa in a way you've never been taken before. His superb writing, his keen insight and passion-driven analysis combine to make A Continent for the Taking a great read for those who find the continent as fasinating as he does, as well as for those who need to know why we do."
11. • premium: False
    • source: American Prospect
    • content: "French gives us the context necessary to understand Africa's current problems. . . . Broad-ranging. . . . Passionate."
12. • premium: False
    • source: St. Petersburg Times
    • content: "French's great advantage in telling his tale is his depth of perspective. . . . Rare is the book on Africa that gets passed around among policymakers in Washington--we can only hope this becomes one of them."
13. • premium: False
    • source: Ngugi wa Thiong'o, author of Weep Not, Child
    • content: "Many Western narratives tend to exonerate the West for Africa's seemingly endless woes, placing blame squarely on the continent. Some African accounts tend to blame the West entirely. Howard French strikes the right balance, showing that Africa's ills are rooted in internal and external factors but which are clearly linked."
14. • premium: False
    • source: Hartford Courant
    • content: "A harrowing picture of a continental catastrophe."
15. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      February 16, 2004
      Although both tragedy and hope are mentioned in the subtitle, this work of reportage on Africa focuses more on the former than the latter. French was first captivated by Africa after college, in 1980, when he joined his parents and siblings in Ivory Coast. Taken by the pride and beauty he found on the continent, he became a journalist there, eventually serving as a bureau chief for the New York Times
      . His strength as a reporter is evident as he takes the reader across the continent, recounting in vivid detail the genocide in Rwanda and the AIDS and Ebola outbreaks. His prose is evocative without being melodramatic in describing the suffering he saw. The "powerful and eerily rhythmic" wailing of those who had lost loved ones to the Ebola virus "was painful to hear, and clearly bespoke of the recent or imminent deaths of loved ones." French is just as eloquent discussing his ambivalence about covering African crises after criticizing other journalists for their pack mentality in focusing on such crises rather than on giving a more rounded picture of life on the continent. In addition to disease and murder, French focuses his book on Africa's other plague: corrupt tyrants. While his insights into Zaire's Mobutu and Congo's Laurent Kabila are valuable, like many other writers on Africa French excoriates the "treachery and betrayal of Africa by a wealthy and powerful West." But providing some ways to improve life there—to give Africans some hope—is not so easy. As his book shows, French might be exactly the kind of seasoned Africa observer who could help point the way. 8 pages of photos, 1 map. Agent, Gloria Loomis.
      

popularity

15

links

• self:
  • href: https://api.overdrive.com/v1/collections/v1L1BWwAAAA2I/products/f6cbfeca-c26c-4c44-a1e9-1a3020e98804/metadata
  • type: application/vnd.overdrive.api+json

id

f6cbfeca-c26c-4c44-a1e9-1a3020e98804

starRating

5

images

• cover:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/0111-1/{F6CBFECA-C26C-4C44-A1E9-1A3020E98804}Img100.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• thumbnail:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/0111-1/{F6CBFECA-C26C-4C44-A1E9-1A3020E98804}Img200.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover150Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/0111-1/F6C/BFE/CA/{F6CBFECA-C26C-4C44-A1E9-1A3020E98804}Img150.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg
• cover300Wide:
  • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/0111-1/F6C/BFE/CA/{F6CBFECA-C26C-4C44-A1E9-1A3020E98804}Img400.jpg
  • type: image/jpeg

isPublicPerformanceAllowed

False

languages

1. • code: en
   • name: English

subjects

1. • value: History
2. • value: Politics
3. • value: Nonfiction

publishDateText

12/18/2007

otherFormatIdentifiers

1. • type: ISBN
   • value: 9781400030279

mediaType

eBook

shortDescription

In A Continent for the Taking Howard W. French, a veteran correspondent for The New York Times, gives a compelling firsthand account of some of Africa’s most devastating recent history–from the fall of Mobutu Sese Seko, to Charles Taylor’s arrival in Monrovia, to the genocide in Rwanda and the Congo that left millions dead. Blending eyewitness reportage with rich historical insight, French searches deeply into the causes of today’s events, illuminating the debilitating legacy of colonization and the abiding hypocrisy and inhumanity of both Western and African political leaders.
While he captures the tragedies that have repeatedly befallen Africa’s peoples, French also opens our eyes to the immense possibility that lies in Africa’s complexity, diversity, and myriad cultural strengths. The culmination of twenty-five years of passionate exploration and understanding, this is a powerful and ultimately hopeful book...

sortTitle

Continent for the Taking The Tragedy and Hope of Africa

crossRefId

449338

subtitle

The Tragedy and Hope of Africa

publisher

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

bisacCodes

1. • code: HIS001000
   • description: History / Africa / General
2. • code: HIS037070
   • description: History / Modern / 20th Century
3. • code: POL045000
   • description: Political Science / Colonialism & Post-Colonialism