Pakenham, Thomas
New York, NY: Random House, 1991. First U.S. Edition [stated]. Hardcover. Good in good dust jacket. Price clipped. Slightly cocked. DJ has some wear, soiling, edge tears and chips.. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. xxv, [1] 738, [4] p. Illustrated endpaper. Illustrations. Maps. Chronology. Sources. Select Bibliography. Notes. Index. Title from Dust Jacket. Panoramic history at its best: a vivid, dramatic account of how five rapacious European powers seized and subjugated an entire continent. Pakenham tells of the scramble for loot, markets and colonial prestige in which Britain, France, Belgium, Germany and Italy carved up a continent of 11 million square miles and 200 million people. From Wikipedia: "Thomas Francis Dermot Pakenham, 8th Earl of Longford (born 14 August 1933), known simply as Thomas Pakenham, is an Anglo-Irish historian and arborist who has written several prize-winning books on the diverse subjects of Victorian and post-Victorian British history and trees. He is the son of Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford, a Labour minister, and Elizabeth Longford. He has seven siblings, among them Lady Antonia Fraser, a writer who was married to playwright Harold Pinter; Lady Rachel Billington, also a writer and married to director Kevin Billington; Judith Kazantzis, a poet; and Kevin Pakenham, who currently works in the City of London. He is also the cousin of Labour deputy leader, Harriet Harman. Thomas Pakenham does not use his title and did not use his courtesy title before succeeding his father. However, he has not disclaimed his British titles under the Peerage Act 1963, and the Irish peerages cannot be disclaimed as they are not covered by the Act. Following the House of Lords Act 1999 he is not entitled, as a hereditary peer, to sit in the House of Lords. His father was created a life peer in addition to his hereditary titles in order to be able to retain his seat in the upper house. After graduating from Belvedere College and Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1955, Thomas Pakenham travelled to Ethiopia, a trip which is described in his first book The Mountains of Rasselas. On returning to Britain, he worked on the editorial staff of the Times Educational Supplement and later for The Sunday Telegraph and The Observer. He currently divides his time between London and County Westmeath, Ireland, where he is the chairman of the Irish Tree Society and honorary custodian of Tullynally Castle."
