Out of Our Minds Reason and Madness in the Exploration of Central Africa

"This subtle and original book is an anthropology of anthropologists, an exploration of explorers. We have for much too long looked at the records of the late 19th-century European travelers to Central Africa mainly as source material--sometimes reliable, sometimes not--about Africa. Fabian holds these visitors' accounts up to a mirror and looks at what they show about Europe's own assumptions, prejudices, and dreams."--Adam Hochschild, author ofKing Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa "This remarkable book explodes all the old myths about European explorers in Africa while at the same time advancing a subtle and far-reaching critique of conventional ideas of scientific rationality. Fabian's insightful analysis of the literature of exploration provides the grounds for a provocative and very contemporary argument about colonial reason and the conditions of ethnographic understanding."--James Ferguson, author ofExpectations of Modernity: Myths and Meanings of Urban Life on the Zambian CopperbeltFabian, Johannes is the author of 'Out of Our Minds Reason and Madness in the Exploration of Central Africa', published 2000 under ISBN 9780520221239 and ISBN 0520221230.