Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold: Europe's Conquest of Indigenous Peoples

By Mark Cocker

Book Overview

The past five centuries have witnessed a shocking series of confrontations between European nations and millions of indigenous peoples, and these cultural encounters still resonate strongly to this day. Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold is an essential book for understanding the true impact of imperialism. Beautifully and passionately written, it provides a judicious and exhaustively researched indictment of European exploitation. Focusing on four collisions between Europeans and indigenous cultures--the conquest of Mexico, the British onslaught on the Tasmanian Aborigines, the uprooting of the Apaches, and the German campaign against the tribes of Southwest Africa--Mark Cocker illuminates the fundamental experiences that underlay the colonial experience around the globe. Beyond making a persuasive--and balanced--case against colonialism, Cocker also sustains a riveting, often harrowing story. Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold is narrative history in its most impressive form--engaging, accessible, and thought provoking.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802138012
• ISBN13: 9780802138019
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Excellent,

The book shows in vivid detail how many groups who have developed a superiority of power/technology etc frequently use it in a most base and grasping manner, warping their own morality to justify it. Rather than the simplistic European/American(bad) vs nobel savage (good) conflict that some other reviewers took from it,it demonstrated the all universal human trait of brutality and genocide in the pursuit of plunder and greed...

An Epic Tragedy. One of the Best Books I Have Ever Read.

The premise of the book has become so cliched that its fundamental truth has almost become obscured. Cocker uncovers in painstaking detail the results of European colonialism in four areas of the world. Without ever romanticizing the societies (the bloody nature of the Aztecs is particularly stressed) that are conquered, he paints a tragic picture that moved me to the point of tears more than once. A valuable antidote to...

simplistic

Crocker is a journalist who has previously proven his ability to write thoughtful, well-researched books that sell disappointing numbers. It is hard to blame the man for wanting to sell enough books to make some money. It is somewhat harder to take the amount of gore in Rivers of Blood, but one has to concede that he has the formula down. To sell books one must write about a) bad guys, b) harrowing, boodthirsty murder,...