A really good read that brilliantly describes an important but neglected part of history and of the world."
Ausmarine "Jampoler is to be commended for supplementing the story of a rather forgettable man with research that overlaps several boundaries of historical study, including military, media, and diplomatic studies, into a readable, informative biography."
H-Net Reviews "A fascinating safari…Naval Institute Press of ... Read moreAnnapolis has published another winner in Congo, a good summer
or fall
read."
Navy Reads blogspot "History is the greatest tool to achieve strategic context, and few publishers so bountifully cater to this reality at a professional level as does the United States Naval Institute Press. One of the latest examples
and there are so many
is its beautiful new publication of Congo… Jampoler's well-written and contextual Congo is a pleasure to read, but it is also an important book. The more so because of the growing importance of African resources to the global market."
Defense & Foreign Affairs Special Analysis "This meticulously researched volume rescues from obscurity a fascinating episode in the history of U.S. relations with Africa: America's first, tentative efforts at military, diplomatic, and commercial engagement with what is now the rather ironically named Democratic Republic of the Congo in the person of Lt. Emory Taunt, USN. The narrative of the intertwined tragedies of Mr. Taunt and of the Congo is moreover enriched by Andrew Jampoler's own intrepid effort to retrace his protagonist's epic journey down the Congo River from Stanley Falls to Atlantic Ocean. . . . Highly recommended."
J. Peter Pham, director, Africa Center, Atlantic Council, and editor-in-chief, Journal of the Middle East and Africa "This lively, readable, and carefully researched book fills in an intriguing and little-known corner of Congo history. Lieutenant Taunt's life gives us a revealing glimpse of the gold rush mood of the early days of the 'Scramble for Africa.'"
Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold's Ghost and Bury the Chains "In 1885 an otherwise undistinguished U.S. Navy lieutenant named Emory Taunt embarked alone on a journey up the Congo River into what was then still called darkest Africa. Soon Taunt was seeking to parlay his presumed expertise into a lucrative contract with businessman Henry Sanford, and when that didn't pan out, to convince President Cleveland that he should be named U.S. consul to the Congo State. This history of Taunt's misadventures is a window into the curious and conflicted U.S. relationship with Africa in the late Victorian era, and especially with the Congo basin."
Craig L. Symonds, author of The Civil War at Sea and Confederate Admiral "Anyone wanting to know more about the early history of Leopold II's notorious Congo Free State will find much intriguing new information in Andrew Jampoler's scholarly account of the tragi-comical life and death of Lt. Emory Taunt, USN, and of the deeds of a surprising cast of associated diplomats, colonial officials, engineers, ivory traders, and whistle-blowers."
Tim Jeal, author of Stanley: The Impossible LIfe of Africa's Greatest Explorer and Explorers of the Nile: The Triumph and Tragedy of a Great Victorian Adventure Show Less