Edward PaiceRecensioni

This is a great read on the campaigns in and around German East Africa, todays Tanzania, during the First World War. I loved that the maps, glossary and Dramatis Personae were at the start of the book. All books should be like this as it makes finding things easier, it also means that you know that those parts of the book exist right from the start. The book is only about East Africa and not about Africa as a whole, as the cover strongly suggests. But that coverage is extensive, it is excellent military history. It is primarily the story of the Allies campaign, with the Germans receding into the background at times. Which I guess adds to the feeling that the Allies had during the campaign. The book covers the Belgian and Portuguese experiences as well as the experiences of the local Africans. They might not get the coverage that the British, South Africans or Indian troops get, but much of that is due to the better records that still exist for them. Overall I highly recommend this book if your interested in the military history of Africa or of the First World War.

Zambia

Zambia Travel

Detailed biography gives you a great sense of being an explorer in Africa at that time in history. The British politics in the book sometimes was a bit dense, but author Edward Paice manages to convey to the reader all they need to know. The personality of Grogan drives the book and the his larger-then-life persona, as well as those of Rhodes dominate the book. This book is of surefire interest to anyone who enjoyed books like River of Doubt by Candice Millard or Desert Queen by Janet Wallach.

My Amazon Review:
I wanted to give this more stars for he does an admirable job in covering with excellent detail this largely unknown campaign. The numerous maps are a plus although not all place names in the text are on the maps (or I could not locate them.) Orders of battle are apparently complete and the descriptions of the unit actions serviceable, if not very inspiring. Like many a British apologist however he slips badly in his repeated attempts to paint the 'Empire' (you know which one) in a comparatively favorable light...vis-a-vis the 'evil' Germans. He begrudgingly acknowledges the superior performance of the German officers and their outstanding aksari. But only by painting them first as heartless exploiters of native peoples, in contrast to the far more humane and enlightened world administered by the good old Empire. Given the huge discrepancy in available resources (Britain of course having complete sea control) it it little wonder that perhaps a greater percentage of native carriers died under the Germans. Yet the massive numerical advantages enjoyed by the Commonwealth troops also ensured that they used many more carriers, many of whom died. He cites the German suppression of native rebellions before the war as particularly cruel and there is little doubt they were. I am so sick of British Empire lovers and apologists condemning other colonialists (Belgian, Portuguese as well come under his strict disapproval), while smugly extolling the virtues of life for natives under the heel of the Britain. While he concludes with a few more well-aimed barbs at the savage Germans we get no sense that he has even heard of the British concentration camps in the Boer War, the Mau-Mau rebellion gulags, the bloody suppression of the Sepoy rebellion, the semi-deliberate extermination of Irish people, etc, etc. Get OFF your high-horse Englishman!

In spite of a somewhat narrow focus, giving too much attention to the misadventures of the British, this book offers a breathtaking account of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, the deadliest tragedy of this kind to take place in a west european city.

Novo ano, novo livro. Desta vez li o livro do autor Edward Paice, “Ira de Deus”. O livro retrata a maior catástrofe natural vivida em Portugal até hoje, o Grande Terramoto de Lisboa de 1755.
Foi para mim uma leitura difícil. Estou habituado a ler essencialmente romances históricos, e este livro pode-se dizer que é essencialmente um livro descritivo, mais do género documentário. Redigido por um escritor britânico, revela muitos pormenores sobre o relacionamento entre Portugal e Inglaterra, descrevendo fastidiosamente inúmeros dados dos gastos da altura, das importações e exportações entre Portugal e Inglaterra, se calhar demasiados no meu ponto de vista, o que tornou o livro um pouco aborrecido de ler.
Por triste coincidência, no período da minha leitura, aconteceu a tragédia no Haiti. O paralelismo entre os dois acontecimentos foi inevitável. De certa forma deu-me algum alento para continuar a ler o livro, até porque muito do que se passou foi comum nas duas tragédias. Apesar de se intervalarem por mais de 250 anos, o ser humano continua a ter os mesmos comportamentos, o desespero, os saques, o aproveitamento da situação, … Ao ver as imagens televisivas sobre o terramoto do Haiti, punha-me a imaginar no que se terá passado há 255 anos em Lisboa. De referir, que após o terramoto de Lisboa, houve um maremoto que matou mais umas centenas largas de pessoas e por fim ainda deflagrou um incêndio na cidade que durou uma semana, que acabou por destruir o que ainda tinha resistido às duas catástrofes anteriores. Pode-se dizer que foi um “três-em-um”.
O livro está dividido em três partes: no antes, com o subtítulo “Um império dourado”; no durante, “Um eixo de elementos”; e no após, “Repercussões”. É interessante saber que mesmo antes do terramoto, o país já se encontrava dum declínio evidente, devido a uma má regência por parte dos nossos gananciosos monarcas da altura, que gastavam desmesuradamente todas as riquezas provindas do Brasil, em interesses pessoais, não investindo essas mesmas riquezas no país, tornando-o dependente principalmente de Inglaterra, fazendo com que Portugal fosse considerado uma colónia inglesa. Aliás já nessa altura, e para vermos que já éramos considerados um povo muito limitado, na Europa dizia-se “à boca cheia” que um português era um espanhol mas sem as boas qualidades.
Resumindo e concluindo, para quem gosta de aprofundar um pouco mais os seus conhecimentos históricos desta altura, se conhecem bem a cidade de Lisboa e se têm referências de como era Lisboa antes do terramoto, então aconselho vivamente o livro, caso contrário torna-se um livro bastante maçador, demasiado detalhado para quem quer ter uma leitura mais ligeira.

It's early morning, and you are heading to church. Once there, a massive earthquake strikes. You rush outside to see buildings start to collapse due to a second tremor just minutes later. Within an hour, parts of the city are ablaze, which does nothing to quell the panic. You rush to the river, hoping to flee the city in a boat. But several huge waves come rushing down the riverbed. It sounds like a plot for a summer blockbuster, but this "perfect storm" really did strike Lisbon in 1755. Two recent books cover the history of the event: Wrath of God by Edward Paice, and The Last Day by Nicholas Shrady.

The Last Day starts out in media res, putting the reader in the churches of the somewhat devout Portuguese city minutes before the earthquake. Shrady then gives some of the history of Portugal, especially concentrating on the Catholic influence and the Brazilian importation of gold and slaves. The book bounces back and forth through history as Shrady takes a topic and gives its history, which made it feel like some parts were repetitive. Shrady's main focus through the last half of the book is the Marques de Pombal (Sebastiao Jose de Carvalho e Melo), a man who positioned himself well in the rebuilding of Lisbon (and, in essence, the entire country).

Wrath of God follows a more chronological structure, giving the history of Lisbon for the first seventy pages (one irritating point: the author uses many Portuguese words without always giving definitions). When the earthquake finally happens, Paice has established a number of characters which he follows throughout the middle third of the book. While this sometimes seems to jumble their stories, it really shows the confusion and terror that must have occurred during this disaster. The end of the book does discuss the rebuilding process, plus it gives a longer philosophical discussion starring Voltaire, who wrote two commentaries on the earthquake.

With his important part in the rebuilding of Lisbon, the Marques de Pombal plays a large role in both books. He's generally portrayed with all his faults: he's certainly a man of action who seems to have wanted to revitalize his country, but he's not above petty politics, likely fabricating plots to have his detractors exiled or killed. The Last Day offered a slightly more positive story, noting other areas of Pombal's interest (his ideas for educational reform, for example).

Because both books work from the same primary sources, there's a lot of repetition between the books. Even so, they both tell slightly different stories. The Last Day was a quicker read, which told the story of the disaster and its aftermath. Wrath of God was a bit more academic, noting the struggle of the Church and philosophers to explain why such a religious country would be punished by God in this way. While both titles offer extensive footnotes and bibliographies, I'd recommend The Last Day if you're just interested in the history of the great earthquake, but read Wrath of God if you're doing research in history or earth science.½

A good comprehensive study of the Great War in East Africa - not "Africa" as the sub-title suggests. Paice only touches briefly on the war in other parts of the continent. It makes interesting reading. Although it is mainly a book about Europeans, Paice includes some discussion on the effects of the war on the indigenous populations, and has taken the trouble to interview one of the last African survivors.

The book would be easier to read if the maps were more comprehensive, and if the text gave some hint as to which map was relevant at which point. I found myself constantly having to leaf through several of the maps, turning the book sideways and scanning names in small print, to find which one we had now reverted to. Some locations referred to in the text did not seem to appear in any map. I know most of the areas in which the action took place - I can imagine it would be even more difficult for a reader who doesn't. At least one typographical error in which the author got his compass directions mixed up made it more difficult and, when desperately searching for some obscure place on the map, made one wonder whether there was another error.½

Grogan was the first man to travel overland from the Cape to Cairo at the end of the 19th century, and a passenger in the first direct flight in the other direction decades later. He was a significant figure in Kenyan colonial history. I was intrigued to learn that the well-known Gertrude's Garden children's hospital was a project initiated by his wife.½