Book Review: Harper on Kennedy, The Last Blank Spaces
Dane Kennedy. The Last Blank Spaces:
Exploring Africa and Australia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2013.
Illustrations. 368 pp. $35.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-674-04847-8.
Reviewed by Toby Harper (Providence College)
Published on H-Empire (November, 2014)
Commissioned by Charles V. Reed
Published on H-Empire (November, 2014)
Commissioned by Charles V. Reed
Rough Terrain
All too often, academic history in general and imperial
history in particular take a subject that sounds like it should be a
fascinating study of past societies and individuals and render it into a bland
(even if worthy) paste of overanalyzed detail. This has not been the case with
Dane Kennedy’s work, however. His previous book on Richard Burton (The
Highly Civilized Man: Richard Burton and the Victorian World [2006]) combined
entertaining narratives, historiographical sophistication, and a core
innovative idea about the relationship between Burton’s life, imperial
ideologies, and our understanding of late Victorian British culture. Can
Kennedy deliver a similar combination with the broader (and intuitively if not
necessarily fascinating) topic of British exploration in Australia and Africa?