Simply put this is the best book on Africa dealing up to the 1990's. As an African living in Europe I found this book an excellent read and spot on in its findings. Students of political science, and those who have an interest in Africa such as western governments, aid agencies and miltinationals would do well to read this book. By better understanding Africa real progress could be made to solve the problems of Africa.

I cant recommend this book more strongly.

A friend gave me this book, and said "you gotta read this". And you know what, I'm really happy she did, because I learned a lot from Dispatches. Harden does a great job of weaving different short stories, each with a unique slant and look at African life. Both entertaining and educational, I'm now fascinated with Africa and ready to read more!

Blaine Harden's Africa: Dispatches From a Fragile Continent is as at once fascinating and sobering. A former Washington Post bureau chief in sub-Saharan Africa from 1985 to 1989, Harden grabs the reader with his vivid prose which weaves together a clear grasp of depressing and repressive African politics; eye-catching facts that plague the continent, diligently dug up; and tales of one character after another that together provide a sharp snapshot of Africa in the eighties.

With a region as vast as sub-Saharan Africa, containing almost 50 countries, focus is needed to make any account manageable. Harden ably does this by zeroing-in on seven countries: Kenya, Sudan, Zaire (recently re-named Congo), Zambia, Nigeria, Ghana, and Liberia. To immerse oneself into each chapter is to be right at Harden's side clearly sensing the local color and human commotion in which Africans struggle "between an unworkable Western present and a collapsing African past. Their loyalties are stretched between predatory governments and disintegrating tribes, between arbitrary demands of dictators and incessant pleadings of relatives, between commandments of the Bible and obligations to the ancestors."

This book should be read by anyone with an interest in Africa or a desire to explore a new world region through the eyes of a curious journalist. Most memorable is the profile that Harden sketches of the typical African Big Man ruler: "His every pronouncement is reported on the front page. He sleeps with the wives and daughters of powerful men in his government. He shuffles ministers without warning, paralyzing policy decisions as he undercuts pretenders to his throne. He scapegoats minorities..." And the list continues. The resulting image casts a long, haunting shadow on the continent. Though there's much in it that disturbs, the book holds the reader's attention from beginning to end.

I grew up in the Tri-Cities and spent the first 19 years of my life living just blocks away from the Columbia River and there was a lot of information told in this book that I never knew. Harden does a wonderful job of relating the history of the Columbia River and the effects that the many dams built on the river had on the land, the people, the nation, and the economy. I thoroughly enjoyed his story and felt he handled well the many issues important to preservationists, politicians, and farmers.

I recommend this to anyone who lives in the state of Washington and is interested in man's permanent effects on this land.

Once in a great while a book comes along that is so beautifully written, with stories so well told, that the subject matter seems secondary to the writer's ability to sustain interest. For me, with little interest in the northwest (I've been there twice), this was such a book. It is from Harden's exceptional skill as a writer and narrator of stories that the Columbia River suddenly became of great interest as I turned his pages.

"A River Lost" tells the story and history of the Columbia River and the environmental, economic and aesthetic impact of daming that river in the first half of the last century. Especially interesting are the stories and points of view of those who work and live on its shores, the fate of the native indians who have lived in the region for hundreds of years and the differences in culture between the Starbucks yuppies east of the Cascades and the blue collar workers so dependant on the water and its billions in federally subsidized benefits to the west.

Highly praised in reviews by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, the Village Voice, The Seattle Times and Publishers Weekly, it is a great read for the information, for the writing, for a piece of American history.

When this book was written the current water, fish, and power crisis was in its infancy. This book foretold the inevitable conflict that now threatens the economy of the entire region. The documentation of the wasteful use of water by irrigators to grow crops that are unprofitable with a system paid for by taxpayers and electric ratepayers should be mandatory reading for all Northwesterners. If BPA fails and electric rates skyrocket the reasons are all spelled out here. Those who want to frame the debate as "fish versus Power" will find in the pages of this book that in actuality the real contest is between power generation and irrigation. My 16 years as a water resource planner for the Department of the Interior made me want to say "right on" with every page I read.