Download PDF Scouting on Two Continents eBook FR Burnham

Product details File Size 1432 KB Print Length 325 pages Simultaneous Device Usage Unlimited Publisher Caracara Press (February 4, 2018) Publication Date February 4, 2018 Sold by  Digital Services LLC Language English ASIN B079LGQDGZ

Scouting on Two Continents eBook FR Burnham Reviews

• This is an interesting life told in a very first hand way. Remember that Burnham is a product of his time, and the racial attitudes he states reflect that. If you can get past the rather frequent claims of "white" superiority you will find the story of a man who lived a fascinating life mainly by choosing adventure and conflict at almost every crossroads. Burnham was part of many of the major historical events of his time (the Gold rush in Alaska, the US indian wars and the Boer war to name just a few) and some of the anecdotes are revealing in ways that conventional history would not show. His adventures in South Africa are the heart of the book and those anecdotes really stick.
  
  Burnham is a story teller, not a writer. This is a book that will spend 5 pages talking about the moral value of prospectors, but speed over the loss of his two children in a paragraph each, so do not expect personal insights. Instead read it to learn what "happened". Taken as such it is an enjoyable read.
• This is an absolutely fascinating story of an American scout, explorer, prospector and overall great man who helped develop our Southwest, the Yukon and several areas of africa. He fought indians, nature, African tribes and Boers. He knew and worked for many men; those who were great at the time and many who developed into fine statesmen. His description of the areas he travelled are quite good. It is a shame that American history has forgotten his memory.
• This autobiography is full of action as Burnside serves his (largely) military masters on three continents as a scout and occasional sapper and assassin, with a few interludes as a prospector for gold and diamonds. Burnside seems to have hobnobbed with some of the great colonial minds of the era just before World War I, and he made his fortune as a prospector and occasional entrepreneur.
  
  What struck me the most, though, was how much Burnside was influenced by inspirational leaders -- especially Rhodes, the father of Rhodesia, Teddy Roosevelt with his rough rider style, and several British military commanders, including Lord Baden Powell, for whom he worked during the Second Boer War. In fact, it was Burnside who served as the model that inspired Baden-Powell to establish the Boy Scouts, in South Africa and subsequently in the U.S.
  
  The other thing that struck me is how much Burnside accepted the colonial model without question. While there are some rather harrowing accounts of running fights with African warriors of various nations in Southern Africa, most of the book focuses on the battles of the European nations with each other over control of a vast territory that all seemed to assume it was their right to take. It was almost as if the great African native population was a bystander.
  
  Ah, but Mr. Burnside is a study in contradictions. He brags about bagging four bull elephants on the one hand, and yet was instrumental in the development of wildlife preserves in the U.S. and Africa. He also taught Baden-Powell about scouting and woodcraft, and helped establish the Boy Scouts of America in the U.S. One of his fellow acquaintances and Boer War comrades, Winston Churchill, coined the phrase, "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma." Churchill was referring to Russian post-WWI policy at the time, but it certainly could have been used to describe Mr. Burnside as well.
• In this autobiography Burnham gives us an up close view of the frontier in the American west including the unforgettable ruses and methods he used to survive. He goes on to tell us how he used many of the same devices in South Africa`s Boer War. Unbelievavable adventure and all of it true.
• This man is the least known of America's 19th Century men of great accomplishment. A western scout and adventurer who makes his mark big time, participating in some of history's great stories, like the Pleasant Valley War, the Apache Wars, the Klondike gold strikes in North America, and the Zulu Wars and Boer War in South Africa. This book is autobiographical, but without the usual boasting found in books of this sort. Burnham recounts history as he experienced it, sometimes in his self effacing way portraying himself and just one of the guys, while doing amazing things. Looking for a hero you didn't know about, read of the life of Major Francis Russell Burnham.
• I have been an intense outdoorsman all my life. I have had some interesting adventures along the way on several continents. However.....While reading this autobiography I was reminded of my profound sense of inadequacy, respect and sadly envy as when I read Pringle's Biography of Mr. President Theodor Roosevelt. Mr. Burnham's life was extremely large, risk soaked and significant on a world stage scale. Not as large or profound as Mr. Roosevelt, but dancing with much more imminent personal mortal danger. Reminiscent of Gentleman Jim Corbett, electrifying and almost superhuman exploits are related calmly, truthfully and with a matter of fact detailed manner throughout. I would have so enjoyed swapping tales and sharing a few scotches and/or beers over a campfire with all three gentleman plus Mr C Selous and a few others. Read this book and be amazed! Hope to meet them all on the other side. See you soon gents!
• A customer of mine is of the Blick family and relative of Burnham who lent me his "loaner copy" which having read completely, I then purchased an identical 1923 edition.
  I'm now three quarters through the second reading and am completely amazed of his very full life.
  A movie on this person could not possibly show all his challenges much less three movies n all his exploits.