Great History the way it should be Written
Customer Rating: 
This books covers a large are of geography that rarely gets into the mainstream omnibus histories. The region covered is roughly the SE Coast of Africa from the horn to the cape. Others actors come in as the rise of India, Muslim traders, Indonesian immigrants and great empires clashing on the worldwide scene entering, sometimes dominating, and then leaving.
Starting with the earliest denisons of the area such as the tribes of Malay Maqmaqs in Madagascar, to the ancient very advanced Kingdom of Zimbabwe. The first whites to make their brutal appearance as the Portugese, and for a colonial power they are right off the scale in terms of brutality. It is harder to concieve on a more stereotypical version of callous brutality that the Portugese immediately exhibited in their quest for the mythical kingdom of Prester John.
But the cast includes a long tenure of the Caliphs of the coast here largely independent until the latter day Germans, largely with British approval carved them up and added Zanzibar and Uganda to their respective circles of colonial territories. Here is the history of the slave trade writ large, of those countries such as France and the US unashamedly practising its trade and the practical dilemnas of trying to stamp it out by the British.
The narrative ends just prior to WWI when the sailing ships at the mercy of the monsoon trade winds gave way to steam and the last vestiges of local power and non-white power have been eclipsed by colonialism. This is pure narrative history and use of sources is impressive. There is no particular ideological agenda going on here... events are told accurately and with a minimum of moral language... in such a descriptive mode the actions of the actors are judged by you alone.
Were that more such histories could be written about other "forgotten" reaches of the world.
A panoramic view of history
Customer Rating: I can't even imagine the prodigious amount of research Mr. Hall has done to recreate this history of the Indian Ocean peoples. For that alone, this book has 5 stars!
The book is divided into three parts - first the history of this region before the arrival of the Europeans, the European period, and the last part deals with the consolidation by Britain of the English lake (what the Indian Ocean was referred to as later). The first two parts are excellent in my opinion.
The book is filled with the most curious facts imaginable and long since forgotten from our history books. The brutality in the name of religion and empire still amazes me.
I highly recommend this book.
