Heroic imperialists in Africa: The promotion of British and French colonial heroes, 1870-1939

From the height of ‘New Imperialism’ until the Second World War, three generations of heroes of the British and French empires in Africa were selected, manufactured and packaged for consumption by a metropolitan public eager to discover new horizons and to find comfort in the concept of a ‘civilising mission’. This book looks at imperial heroism by examining the legends of a dozen major colonial figures on both sides of the Channel, revisiting the familiar stories of Livingstone, Gordon and...