Contested Empire: Bertram Mitford and Imperial Adventure Story Michael Lieven

Posts : 1261 Join date : 2010-04-12

Let me know what you think, on this guys opinion of Mitfords stories.

http://faculty.ed.uiuc.edu/westbury/paradigm/lieven2.html

Hi Chard1879.
Not sure what you wish to know , Mitford and others of that era were writing in and on that era at that time , so what you read is not meant to denegrate the native masses . It's merely a case of what the British or Colonials believed of themselves as attempting to steer the Natives into the 19th Century way of thinking . I've only read one of Mitford's books and it's his Journey through the zulu country a couple of years after the war in which he talks to zulu participants , it is a documentary / Diary
which of course is not a work of fiction ! . As far as I'm aware the rest of his works regarding Africa are indeed Fictional accounts
possibly based on people he may have known , but they are no doubt written in the vein of the thinking of the time , as no one knew any differant , its hard to criticize people's thinking from 135 yrs ago as it will be when writers of today may well be criticised
another 135 yrs in the future !. Hope this is what you are after Question

Cheers 90th Salute