Awards

• Short-listed for Saltire Society Scottish History Book of the Year 2023

Overview

Majestic River: Mungo Park and the Exploration of the Niger is about geography, exploration, and a 2000-year-old geographical mystery. By the eighteenth century, the river Niger was to Europeans a source of wonder, potential wealth, and a two-part problem. The first would be solved by Mungo Park in 1796. Park's death in 1806 in failing to solve the second prompted other expeditions which sought to determine the cause of his death and to trace the Niger's course. This book offers the first full length biography of Mungo Park for over forty years. It traces the expeditions who followed him. It documents for the first time Park's afterlife - how and why he was commemorated long after his death. The book shows how the Niger was slowly 'revealed,' in texts, maps and through indigenous knowledge. The Niger problem was finally solved by exploration in 1830. But years before, it had already been solved by 'armchair geographers' who never set foot in Africa and who, unlike Park, did not die trying. Park remains today one of Britains best known explorers and his classic Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa both became a bestseller and has remained in print for over 200 years. The mystery of Park's death and the ongoing fascination with the Niger problem prompted expedition after expedition well into the 19th century. This is not simply one of the great stories of world exploration but a rich and varied account of Africa and its cultures at the time.

Full Product Details

9781780277998

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Reviews

"'Punchy, eloquent, and infused with forensic research ...This book is in all senses a geographical epic' -- Nicholas Crane, writer and presenter, BBC Two’s Coast and author of The Making of the British Landscape 'This deeply researched and sumptuously illustrated book is at once an exciting new biography of Mungo Park, a wide-ranging history of the decades-long efforts by the British to explore the Niger, and an illuminating study of the evolution of geography and cartography as fields of scientific knowledge' -- Dane Kennedy, author of The Last Blank Spaces: Exploring Africa and Australia 'A fascinating and illuminating read' -- Megan Amato * Scottish Field * 'Both an admirable biography of the explorer Mungo Park and also a thoughtful meditation on early British involvement in West Africa' -- Allan Massie * The Scotsman * 'It's always thrilling to stumble across a book that is so well researched and written that as a reader you get the sense it will be the definitive account of the subject it covers for quite some time to come. ""Majestic River"" is one of those books' -- Ken Lussey * Undiscovered Scotland * 'Mungo Park died in 1806 before realising his mission to trace the course of the Niger. The author looks at the life and legacy of this famed explorer' * The Saltire Society *"

'Punchy, eloquent, and infused with forensic research ...This book is in all senses a geographical epic' -- Nicholas Crane, writer and presenter, BBC Two's Coast and author of The Making of the British Landscape 'This deeply researched and sumptuously illustrated book is at once an exciting new biography of Mungo Park, a wide-ranging history of the decades-long efforts by the British to explore the Niger, and an illuminating study of the evolution of geography and cartography as fields of scientific knowledge' -- Dane Kennedy, author of The Last Blank Spaces: Exploring Africa and Australia 'A fascinating and illuminating read' -- Megan Amato * Scottish Field * 'Both an admirable biography of the explorer Mungo Park and also a thoughtful meditation on early British involvement in West Africa' -- Allan Massie * The Scotsman *

'Punchy, eloquent, and infused with forensic research ...This book is in all senses a geographical epic' -- Nicholas Crane, writer and presenter, BBC Two's Coast and author of The Making of the British Landscape 'This deeply researched and sumptuously illustrated book is at once an exciting new biography of Mungo Park, a wide-ranging history of the decades-long efforts by the British to explore the Niger, and an illuminating study of the evolution of geography and cartography as fields of scientific knowledge' -- Dane Kennedy, author of The Last Blank Spaces: Exploring Africa and Australia 'A fascinating and illuminating read' -- Megan Amato * Scottish Field * 'Both an admirable biography of the explorer Mungo Park and also a thoughtful meditation on early British involvement in West Africa' -- Allan Massie * The Scotsman * 'It's always thrilling to stumble across a book that is so well researched and written that as a reader you get the sense it will be the definitive account of the subject it covers for quite some time to come. Majestic River is one of those books' -- Ken Lussey * Undiscovered Scotland *

'Punchy, eloquent, and infused with forensic research ...This book is in all senses a geographical epic' -- Nicholas Crane, writer and presenter, BBC Two's Coast and author of The Making of the British Landscape 'This deeply researched and sumptuously illustrated book is at once an exciting new biography of Mungo Park, a wide-ranging history of the decades-long efforts by the British to explore the Niger, and an illuminating study of the evolution of geography and cartography as fields of scientific knowledge' -- Dane Kennedy, author of The Last Blank Spaces: Exploring Africa and Australia

Author Information

Charles W. J. Withers is Professor Emeritus and former Ogilvie Chair of Human Geography at the University of Edinburgh. In 2015 he was appointed the first Geographer Royal for Scotland in 118 years. He is co-editor of Geographies of the Book (2010), co-author of Scotland: Mapping the Nation and co-author of Scotland: Mapping the Islands.

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