Buy used: $42.17

Delivery Tuesday, October 24. Order within 17 hrs 25 mins

Or fastest delivery Friday, October 20

Used: Good | Details

Sold by Martistore

Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Add to List

Added to

Unable to add item to List. Please try again.

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Image Unavailable

Image not available for
Color:

To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the Author

Robert B. Edgerton

Fall of the Asante Empire: The Hundred-Year War for Africa's Gold Coast Hardcover – February 1, 1995

by Robert B. Edgerton (Author)

4.4 23 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$15.99

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$42.17

—

$7.19

Paperback

"Please retry"

$20.95

$16.95

$13.75

Kindle
$15.99 Read with our Free App
Hardcover
$42.17

27 Used from $7.19 2 Collectible from $10.50
Paperback
$20.95

7 Used from $13.75 9 New from $16.95

Telling the Asantes' story of their hundred-year war with the British Empire--from 1807 to 1900--a saga of massive resistance against overwhelming odds reveals a wealthy, sophisticated culture and balances our view of native African societies.

Print length

293 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Free Press
Publication date

February 1, 1995
Dimensions

6.5 x 1.25 x 9.75 inches
ISBN-10

0029089263
ISBN-13

978-0029089262
See all details

Stephen Manning
146
Hardcover
$32.04
$11.09 shipping
Only 6 left in stock - order soon.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

23 global ratings

5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star 0% (0%)		0%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Kwaku Osei-Opoku

Misleading Artwork on Cover of book

Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2022

Verified Purchase

Well research and opens to the door to deep and interesting picture of the Asante Empire. However, the cover artwork depitch the British and the zulu in one of their wars. Not the Asante. I think the publishers should replace the cover book picture

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Lawrence A. Strid

Little Known Subject of British Colonial Wars

Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2005

Verified Purchase

Many students or afficianados of 19th century British colonial wars in Africa are only familiar with the more well-known episodes of same, such as the Anglo-Zulu War, the Boer Wars or the travails of Gordon and Kitchener in the Sudan. This book is fascinating for its very readable study of the Asante (formerly Ashanti) tribe of modern day Ghana, which actually had a standing army armed with muskets and organized along neo-European tactics, who dominated their tribal neighbors and gave the British army and its African conscripts a real run for their money over an approximate 100 year period. The author treats both sides of the conflict fairly, and it is apparent that the Asante wanted peace with the British in order to enhance their own prestige and trading opportunities in the area, but the British, under the guise of stamping out oppression to their coastal tribe allies and to stop human sacrifice, took it upon themselves to march inland and crush Asante dominance on several occasions, although not without being bloodied in the process. This is one of those works of history that opens the door to a little known chapter of British military history, and which reads like a novel. Highly recommended, and contains some interesting illustrations and photographs as well.

10 people found this helpful

Helpful

Justin

Decent Introduction to Ashanti History

Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2018

Verified Purchase

I've seen quite a few reviews declaring that the book gives a utopian view of Ashanti society, which I personally strongly disagree with. This book goes out of its way to show both the good and bad of Ashanti society, which I respect, though I do think that it falls prey to two common misconceptions surrounding the Ashanti. Generally though, good read. I definitely recommend it.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Decolliber

fascinating history

Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2017

Verified Purchase

Perhaps because I lived in the Gold Coast as a child, I found the book an interesting and well written history. Perhaps a bit too politically correct in the way that the author presents the pre-British society of the Asante to be quite idyllic (apart from the constant human sacrifices!), in the tradition of the "noble savage" view of pre-colonial societies as peaceful utopias.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Medraut

Fantastic Book

Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2014

Verified Purchase

Excellent work here by the author, who writes with no bias, as we come to understand it in the modern text. Both sides are described for better and worse, warts and all. Slavery it seems practiced by the great African kingdoms all over Africa, is not something I remember being taught in school here in the US.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Jan A. Volkman

Great Book

Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2019

Verified Purchase

The story of a very slow motion invasion and colonization

One person found this helpful

Helpful

water50

Fall of ashanty empire

Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2013

Verified Purchase

Interesting Information about the ashanty tribe and additionally
better understanding about the colonialism in and of africa.
The term gold coast is also better understood.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Military history with important anthropological insight

Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2021

Mr. Edgerton has written a conventional military history of Britain’s wars against the Asante, but with a twist that sets it apart from others. As an anthropologist, the author spends more time than most focusing on the political and military dynamics of Asante culture rather than focusing purely on conventional military issues. This leads to a greater understanding of the more conventional factors such as organization, tactics, and strategy.

For example, Mr. Edgerton goes into the importance of slavery to Asante culture; not the normal sale of slaves to the coast for the European slave trade, but how slaves formed the backbone to the Asante economy and their Army. The Asante empire was built on the use of slaves in their mines and agriculture, and they provided a significant part of their army.

He also reviews the cultural/political aspects of their empire such as the selection of the king, the interplay between the central government and subordinate chiefs and generals, and the belief system. He reviews how all this impacted their decision-making process for whether or not to go to war, general officer selection, and the importance of the Golden Stool the literal seat of the king. (Like a throne, but with a more religious and cultural importance.)

Mr. Edgerton also goes into the tribal dynamics between the Asante and their neighboring tribes, particularly the coastal Fante tribe who, by default, became British de facto allies as the British were drawn into the Fante’s own long-term conflict with the Asante.

Of course, Mr. Edgerton also recounts the normal military campaigns and battles that were fought between the British and the Asante over an 80-year period. There were five wars or expeditions between the British and the Asante during this period. The British came out on the losing sides in the earlier wars, to include on in which the British governor was beheaded, and his skull encrusted with gold. With difficulty, the British won the wars in the later 1800s with the final war fought in 1900. The author also discusses the impact of the brutal jungle terrain, and the more brutal significance of disease on the battles and, importantly, logistics.

If I have one quibble about the book, and it is a quibble, is the publisher put a picture of an action during the Zulu wars on the cover. How the publisher could have made this mistake, I can’t imagine. But this is a publisher’s error not the author's and it does not affect the history itself.

I would definitely recommend this book. It provides a great overview of this period’s wars, British governance in the region, and how Asante culture affected the battles.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Sorry, there was a problem.

Sorry, there was a problem.

Follow the Author

Fall of the Asante Empire: The Hundred-Year War for Africa's Gold Coast Hardcover – February 1, 1995

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.