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Exactly what expected
The Natural History of Madagascar provides a very (maybe the most) comprehensive review of the, well, natural history of Madagascar. It does an outstanding job at that and is easy to read (my background is in medicine, so I might be a little biased). As previously mentioned, this is not a coffee table book-few photographs. But this is hardly a shortcoming of this monumental work.

Superbook !
This book is for sure one of the heaviest books in my library, but what a book it is !

Everything you always wanted to know about Madagascar, and more, is in it.
From soil types to the use of the local plants,from Nile crocodiles to lemurs...incredible to see all these scientific papers bundeled together.

Are you studying Madagascar in any way this book is a must have.
Interested in the fauna,flora,geology,history...this book is what you need !

This book has a solid scientific base the text reflects this, keep this in mind. The photos are rare in this book but drawings and maps make up for this (as does the excellent text).

The "Arc" of Relics
The Natural History of Madagascar is a tome. It weighs about 8 pounds and is some 1700 pages long. It does contain information on most all living things ( and some fossils) found on the island: plants, insects, molluscs, spiders, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. This is not a field guide however. There are few illustrations and few keys to species. What is contained is informationon for understanding the systematics and phylogeny, the natural history of the various groups and the ecomorphologic diversity important in how individuals fit into the various habitats of the island. Since Madagascar has just about every conceivable ecologic niche for its sub-tropical location from bone-dry desert in the southwest to soggy rain forest on the entire east coast and everything in between. The island is essentially a shoe shape (left) with the toe pointing north and a high mountain range running south to north. The island broke away from Gondwana still attached to India some 120 mya and then separated from the west coast of India in the mid late Cretaceous. This has led to a burgeoning of endemism in all forms of life. Though an isolated "arc" island carrying its load of archaic animals and plants and allowing for its own pattern of evolution, it was not without occasional input from the outside world. Animals and plants could literally "barge" in on detritus rafts and introduce new groups. Whether or not the new species survived and prospered depended on their ability to fit in some niche. This has led to some interesting complexities of the species lists. There are no dog family or cat family predators. Civets and Mongooses fill some of the roles and large Lemurs and birds may have also. Then the late arrival human predator eliminated all of the larger animals and birds. On the other hand you have many relics still prospering whereas elsewhere they have been supplanted or died out. Tenrecs and Lemurs are among them. As a botanic example we can look at palms. On the whole continent of Africa there are some thirty species; on Madagascar 130. As noted in the discussion many "endemics" are really relics of evolutionay lines that died out on the main continents.
Other chapters have discussions on the physiologic adaptations of animals and plants that allow them to exploit the niches. Data is also found on some of the infectious diseases, parasitic, bacterial and viral for some of the animals. In my own area of fungal infections of animals, it is noted that several tenrec species had evidence Pneumocystis carinii, a strange ascomycetous fungus.
In the early chapters there is extensive coverage of rainfall and climate, soil types and geologic formations, fossils, origins of the Malagasy peoples that arrived only two thousand years ago and the culture and agriculture they now practice.
Its the kind of book I love - filled with biologic trivia - and it is good background for the serious natural history traveler. I'll be there soon.

The Natural History of Madagascar. Goodman & Bensted eds.
This weighty volume is an edited collection of scientific papers about the natural history of the island of Madagascar- how Madagascar came to be separated from Africa; its fossil record and relationship to existing forms of plant and animal life, most specifically the unique lemurs; its landforms, climatic, and biological zones, etc. Having just returned fromtwo week visit there, in three different areas of country, I can say that I wish I had read more of this book beforehand! I found the parts of Chapter 2 dealing with why Madagascar has such a unique collection of endemic plants and animals especially enlightening and surprising. I happen to be a marine biologist/ecologist professionally and was not put off by the specialized technical terms used by paleontologists, botanists, geologists, and so forth, but I don't think a well read lay reader will be much troubled by them either. This volume is not a guide book, however, but it is amply illustrated to demonstrate particular points. I doubt there is another single source of so much state of the art information about this extraordinary island. ... Read more

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This comprehensive economic history of pre-colonial Madagascar examines the island's role in the burgeoning international economy and the rise of modern European imperialism. It reveals that the Merina of the Central Highlands attempted to found an island empire and, through the exploitation of its human and natural resources, develop the economic and military might to challenge British and French pretensions in the region. Ultimately, their failure (due to imperial forced labor policies and natural disasters) caused the nefarious consequences, attributed to external capitalist and French colonial policies. ... Read more

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Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world. It is a unique blend of Asian and African culture and is well known as the home of some of the world’s most unusual and most endangered flora and fauna, from lemurs to giant tortoises. Although so close to the east coast of Africa where traces of human existence go back hundreds of thousands of years, Madagascar was uninhabited until about two thousand years ago. How it came to be inhabited by seafaring peoples from present-day Indonesia is just one of the many fascinating aspects of this book. A History of Madagascar examines the origins of the Malagasy, the early contacts with Europeans and the struggle for influence in the nineteenth century between the British and the French. It also covers the colonial period from 1896 to 1960, the recovery of independence and subsequent history up to the early 1990s. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Fantastic Insight
Mervyn Brown's superb book left me blown away by the detailed history full of color. I now understand better the current reality of Malagasy politics.

The History of Madagascar is a book that inspired some of the writing of my forthcoming book THE MONFORT PLAN. Mervyn is a real insider and an unbiased agent able to assess with independence the reality of the world's fourth largest island with a historical perspective unchallenged thus far. A must read for anybody interested in Madagascar.

As an american who resides in Madagascar, this is my favorite book.
I have been living in Madagascar for the last four years. I have read this book cover to cover three times and page through it at least once a month. It is an incredibly dense book that seems to magically sprout new facts and information each time I open it.

The book is a must have for anyone living, working, or visiting madagascar. You will never see the country and it's people the same way after reading this. If you think the Malagasy are an impoverished people victimized by french oppression and unfortunate circumstances, or if you think that they are just another african people will typical african problems, you will change your mind after reading this book. The history of Madagascar is exciting, strange, inspiring, and fantastic. I only wish that it could be translated into Malagasy and taught in schools as many of the facts contained in it are completely unknown to most Malagasy.

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Gezon argues that local events continuously redefine and challenge global processes of land use and land degradation. Her ethnographic study of Antankarana-identifying rice farmers and cattle herders in northern Madagascar weaves together an analysis of remotely sensed images of land cover over time with ethnographies of situated negotiations between human actors. Her book will be particularly valuable to researchers and students in anthropology, geography, sociology, and environmental studies, and those involved in conservation and resource management. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (7)

Madagascar Wildlife Book is excellent
This book is a great introduction to Madagascan Wildlife - it gives a breakdown of the main National Parks and Reserves and what you are likely to see at each.Another section provides (limited) details of the Madagascan fauna.While I would have liked some more detail, for the price and size it is a fantastic introductory guide.

I Need Another!!
Fabulous, novice handbook!Great photographs with basic but very purposeful text.My only problem is the owner of the "hotel" in Andisibe, down the street from the main restaurant, enjoyed the book so much I felt compelled to give it to him as a gift!

Good but not grate
What it lacks is maps where to find each animal. Layout of the book is a little bit confusing (pictures are put on pages in chaotic manner) but otherwise a good book. It does what is supposed to: inform about different animals species, not only mammals. There is nothing better on the market right now.

Beautiful but Very Basic Overview!
This book is certainly very pretty, with excellent photographs.
It is also thin and light-weight, and does cover a little bit of everything: habitats, recommended sites to visit, mammals, birds, reptiles and insects.
As such, it is an inspiring read, and probably the best single-volume book to carry for those who only have a superficial interest in Madagadcar's unique wildlife.

However, for more serious naturalists the information it offers is far too limited. Even mammals, the best detailed group, are only discussed down to genus level, neither mentioning nor illustrating all or even most species. Birds receive a token coverage of 10 pages, and reptiles fare little better.
Even the descriptions of nature reserves can be found in the more recent, excellent and complete field guides like the Mammals of Madagascar: A Complete Guide which actually tells you where to spot every single species separately, and the similarly brilliant Birds of the Indian Ocean Islands which not only covers all the birds of Madagascar, but those of neighbouring islands too, along with recommended birdwatching sites. Fans of herpetofauna should try and get hold of A Field Guide to the Amphibians & Reptiles of Madagascar.
If you buy any of the above field guides, you will find this book a waste of money - I did.

Very helpful
I am planning a trip to Madagascar and found this book a very helpful review of the various parks in the country.The photos are excellent and the discussion of the various mammals are readable but provide enough information to be interesting.This is not a technical book on either mammals or ecosystems, but is a good review of both.Perhaps I was looking for too much from this book, but I would have liked more maps and a bit more guidance on how to combine trips to different ecosystems in one trip.I combine it with the Lonely Planet and can cobble together the information, but it requires quite a bit of work.I also liked the sections on reptiles and insects - many books neglect the little creatures, which can be far more interesting than mammals in some ecosystems.Overall highly recommended. ... Read more

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'The seven christians stood together in the bright sunlight, bound with ropes singing a hyme to their foreign saviour as the spearmen advanced. Around them a croud of jostling men, women and children, more than sixty thousand strong...cheered enthusiastically as the spears were driven home and, one by one, the men and women fell and writhed on the sandy ground, their hymn fading slowly into silence...above the still writhing bodies, on a ridge, a score of crosses stood in mute witness, carrying their ghastly burdens, some of whom still lived despite the day and a half they had hung upon the wood.

As European colonists scrambled for control of Africa, a leader arose in the red island of Madagascar who, through ruthless determination thwarted the combined ambitions of all the major world powers. That leader and the author of this holocaust was no warrior but a diminutive woman of middle years, Ranavalona-Manjaka Queen of Madagascar, know to her subjects more simply as Ma Dieu. Under Ranavalona's despotic rule, hundreds of thousands of her people, possibly one-half of Madagascar's entire population, were murdered, starved or simply worked to death by her express command, while she enjoyed an eccentric and debauched lifestyle. For these characteristics, European history has remembered her reign as that of the Female Caligula. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A biased author on Queen Ravalona
The author has given himself a luxury of attacking African and Asian cultures by ridiculing and demonizing their ancient rulers. History writing has no formulas like in science for this author to make us believe everything he is saying. There is absolutely an involvement of his beliefs and what he likes. This kind of arrogance can lead to what happened to a movie maker in Netherlands after he attacked the Arab culture. Queen Ranavalona has done what any other ruler would do when besieged by foreign cultural and economical invasion. In addition to the African Queen Caligula he also wrote a book about a Chinese Caligula. It seems to me that he is unhappy with people who have resisted European evangelization. Maybe he needs to write another book with the title of a Japanese Caligula because of the following:

In1596, it became clear to the Japanese authorities that Christianization had been a prelude to Spanish conquest of other lands; and it quickly dawned on them that afifth column loyal to Rome and controlled by the priests of a foreign religion was a clear and present danger to the sovereignty of a newly unified Japan.Soon after, the persecution and suppression of Japanese Christians began. Early in the 17th century, sensing the danger from a creed that taught obedience to foreign priests rather than the Japanese authorities, all missionaries were ordered to leave and all Japanese were ordered to register at the Buddhist temples. When Japanese Christians took part in a rebellion, foreign priests were executed, the Spanish were expelled and Japanese Christians were forbidden to travel abroad. After another rebellion, largely by Christians, was put down, the Japanese Christians were suppressed and their descendants were put under close state surveillance for centuries thereafter. In the 1640s all Japanese suspected of being Christians were ruthlessly exterminated. Thus did Japan, by 1650, save itself from the first European attempt to mentally subvert, conquer and colonize it.

Eurocentric and Misleadingly Exaggerated Sensationalism
This might make for an entertaining read but please don't allow yourself to believe the author's claim that the tale he tells is entirely true. By selective inclusion of information, mainly stemming from 19th century Europeans (or locals favorable to them), Laidler has cobbled together an incredibly skewed and sensationalistic book that does an excellent job of reviving the hackneyed "Western civilization" vs "Savage" stereotype. Bravo.
Ranavalona's methods were extreme but she reigned in a time of unprecedentedly threatening change, in a land where the preservation of traditions is central to the spirituality and identity of the entire nation.There are plenty of scholars of Madagascar who have interpreted her actions as those of a leader doing what she felt was her duty to protect the nation from spiritual, mental and political domination, and given that the nation was subsequently colonized by France after her reign had ended, she obviously wasn't imagining the danger. In this light, her relationship with Laborde makes a lot more sense.
Disappointing.

Wild story - reality beats fantasy
Ranavalona is a character that needs to be understood and appreciated in our modern world. She is an example of what the friction between a world of aboriginal tribal life and our "civilized" society can produce. And the story is just wild. She is a character that is so out of this world that nobody would come up with her in a fictional novel.

One hell of a read.

A bloodthirsty Queen
Admirers of George Macdonald Fraser's 'Flashman' saga will already be acquainted with the terrifying Queen Ranavalona of Madgascar, who appears in 'Flashman's lady'If you do not already know of her be warned, her story is not for the squeamish.

Ranavalona was one of the wives of King Radama, 'the Malagasay Napoleon'.On his death in 1828 she seized the throne and held onto it for the next 33 years.During her bloody reign at least a third of the population of Madagascar is estimated to have died on her orders, either executed or worked to death as forced labour.Criminals, traitors (real or imaginary) and anyone she happened to take a dislike to, were put to death by gruesome means.She had a particular loathing for Christians, who were persecuted with great savagery.

Despite her hatred of foreign influence, she formed a surprising alliance with a young French merchant, Jean Laborde, who was shipwrecked on the west coast of Madagascar in 1831.She found she could make use of him to manufacture cannon, muskets and gunpowder, and he appears to have been useful to her in other ways too, since he was rumoured to be the father of her only son.

Despite her hatred of foreigners, she was fascinated by all things Euroepan, and she and her courtiers dressed in a bizarre mixture of French fashions of various periods.She discovered a passion for fale flowers, which Laborde manufactured for her, and which she and her ladies wore in such quantities that one account described them as 'floral porcupines'.

Despite all her cruelties and excesses, she seems to have been able to inspire great awe and reverence in her subjects, one of the lavish ceremonies she performed was the Queen's Bath, which she took in public, afterwards sprinking the adoring crowds with her used bath water, a great honour.

A coup engineered against her in 1857 involved Laborde and other foreigners, including the indomitable lady traveller Ida Pfeiffer, who was visiting the island at the time and was drawn into the conspiracy.The coup was a failure, but the foreigners escaped with their lives, being banished from the island.

It is evident that, in spite of her great cruelty and brutality, Keith Laidler does not altogether disapprove of Queen Ranavalona.He writes of her: Unlike many other African and Asian kingdoms, while Ranavalona held power Madgascar had successfully defied all attempts at colonisation.The island had remained an independent state despite the best efforts of both Britain, and, especially, France, to bring it under European sway.For all her manifold faults, the Female Caligula had fulfilled the sacred promise she had made more than three decades before, standing proudly on the sacred coronation stone as the young and beautiful Queen of Imerina:
"Never say 'she is only a feeble and ignorant woman, how can she rule such a vast empire.' I will rule here, to the good fortune of my people and the glory of my name!I will worship no gods but those of my ancestors. the ocean shall be the boundary of my realm and I will not cede the thickness of one hair of my realm!"

Whether it was really to the 'good fortune' of her people is doubtful, presumably the third or more of the population who perished on her orders might think not, but nevertheless it is true that she held onto her kingdom, and as Mr Laidler says "she had extended her domains and, against the colonial current of the times, had kept the island free from foreign influence".This all came to an end with her death, within anothe thirty years Madgascar was a French colony.

This is a fascinating story about an appalling but intriguing woman.



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The peoples of Madagascar are renowned for the prominence they give to the dead. In this volume, regional specialists reassess the significance of ancestors for changing relations of power, emerging identities, and local historical consciousness. Case-studies include the Royal Bath of 1817 (Pier Larson), succession in an urbanized Sakalava kingdom (Lesley Sharp), the Antankarana ritual cycle (Michael Lambek, Andrew Walsh), 19th-century Norwegian missionary culture (Karina Hestad Skeie), sacrifice on the East Coast (Jennifer Cole), violence among the Zafimaniry (Maurice Bloch), and circumcision and colonialism in the South (Karen Middleton). Three further chapters present original research on slavery, memory, and cultural politics in the Highlands (Sandra Evers, David Graeber, Francoise Raison-Jourde). ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Title: History of Madagascar. Comprising Also the Progress of the Christian Mission Established in 1818, and an Authentic Account of the Persecution and Recent Martyrdom of the Native ChristiansVolume: 1Publisher: London : Fisher, son, ... Read more

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Webster's bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on "Madagascar," including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have Madagascar in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with Madagascar when it is used in proper noun form. Webster's timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all parts of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This "data dump" results in a comprehensive set of entries for a bibliographic and/or event-based timeline on the proper name Madagascar, since editorial decisions to include or exclude events is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under "fair use" conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain. ... Read more

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With a focus on missionary women and men in the Norwegian Missionary Society in Madagascar and Norway, this study provides an in-depth examination of how gender relations are negotiated in a religious organization. The time period covered (1860-1910) coincides with colonial efforts of major European states. The book also discusses how aspects of class, race and sexuality must be taken into account in studies of gender relations in the missionary movement. It shows, for example, how marriage propositions and sexual relations between white missionaries and black converts were dealt with by the mission organization in Madagascar. Other topics include the attempts of Norwegian missionary women to impart a form of domesticity to Malagasy girls, their efforts to establish direct links with the broader feminist movement, and the gradual democratization of the mission organization both in Norway and Madagascar. ... Read more

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Studies the Betsileo, tracing the rise of social stratification, state organization, and colonialism in Madagascar.
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A must-read work for serious scholars of Madagascar
Though Madagascar does not appear on the travel wish-lists of many people, nor is it the area of study most young anthropologists aspire to, it is one of the most fascinating places on the planet for travellers or for peoplewith interests in anthropology, religion, music, and history.Eighteen ortwenty different branches of the Malagasy people grew up over thecenturies, each in a specific ecological niche, all of whom were eventuallydominated by the highland dwelling Merina, whose kings ruled the greatisland in the 19th century.Over the last few decades, various works haveappeared on the different Malagasy groups: Merina, Sakalava, Tanala, etc. Kottak's book must be considered the definitive work on the Betsileo, alarge group living in the southern highlands, traditionally earning theirliving by rice farming and cattle herding.THE PAST IN THE PRESENT is atraditional ethnography, (most data was gathered in 1966) describing inparticular, state formation (in the past), social organization, andceremonial life.Kottak assembles an impressive collection of data andmakes the most of it in a rich description.Statistics, maps, diagrams,tables, and footnotes mark a thoroughly professional job. If this is whatyou are looking for, you are bound to find this book useful.To understandMadagascar from a historical point of view, as well as in the time justafter independence in 1960, the book is a necessity. Kottak studied adistrict town and a village in the Betsileo area.If you wonder what theBetsileo thought or said about themselves or about life; if you are lookingfor a more qualitative ethnography, you will not find it here.Given thatthe author did not set out to create such a book, it is unfair to criticizehim for not doing so. I strongly recommend Kottak's work to someone whodoesn't mind wading through a mass of detail, who wishes to become aserious student of Madagascar. ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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In this story of the impact of slave trade on an insular African society, Larson explores how the people of highland Madagascar reshaped their social identity and their cultural practices. ... Read more

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History and Memory in the Age of Enslavement
Following the television series, Wonders of the African World by Henry Louis Gates Jr., the Africanist world refocused attention on slave trade in Africa. Gates Jr. oversimplified the complex history of slavery by suggesting that if Africans had not sold slaves, there would not have been any slavery. Pier Larson's text comes at an appropriate time, to demonstrate just how complex the story of enslavement was and to correctly warn that we do a lot of injustice to a complex history by stopping at identifying losers and winner, benefits and disruptions.

The study focuses on the realm of cultural transformation and is exceptional in several identifiable ways. First, it pays immense attention to the process of enslavement and to those who remained in the slave supplying society. Secondly, it re-integrates Madagascar into the wider Indian Ocean mercantile system and into the general history of Africa. Thirdly, the study demonstrates that slave trade entailed opportunities and challenges and that people made choices on the basis of their circumstances, some of which changed drastically and forced some to enslave kin, neighbors and relatives.

Larson argues that the notion of diapora ought to be extended. Many people were displaced within Africa. They were mostly women and children and they were more than those who crossed the Atlantic. The notion of diapora, he argues, ought to be extended to include intra-continental displacement. Finally, the study shows that some societies worked to create a post-slavery dispensation that was fruitful to their existence. In Madagascar, Larson demonstrates how the people constructed memories of slavery that they used to create their political and later ethnic identity as Merina while at the same time they constructed historical amnesia about those things they did not wish to remember.

This study is a welcome addition to the history of slave trade, the historiography of Africa and to the discipline of history. The study re-interprets the notion of historical sources in a more inclusive perspective. This should be intriguing to all historians. It also extends our history of social displacement which should be good reading for human rights activists, humanitarians and people operating in conflict situation. The author is not only persuasive but is also innovative and lucid in his analysis. I strongly recommend this book to all those mentioned above and students of African studies around the world. ... Read more

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Madagascar, widely known as the _Great Island,_ is just off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. This revised and expanded edition fills us in on the changes that have occurred over the past decade while still covering the long and intricate history of the country. It starts with the earliest settlers, continues through the period of French colonial rule, and then describes more intensively the period of independence, with all its aspirations, failures, and renewed hopes. This is done in a broad introduction, an extensive chronology, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on significant persons, places, and events; ethnic groups and religions; and economic, social, and cultural aspects. Also included is a bibliography offering further reading. ... Read more

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During the early 20th century, a group of ex-slaves established a frontier society in the no-man's-land of the extreme Southern Highlands of Madagascar. First settlers skilfully deployed a fluid set of Malagasy customs to implant a myth of themselves as tompon-tany or "masters of the land". Eventually, they created a land monopoly to reinforce their legitimacy and to exclude later migrants. Some of them were labelled "andevo" ("slave" or "slave descent"). The tompon-tany prohibited the andevo from owning land, and thereby from having tombs. This work focuses on the plight of the tombless andevo, and how their ascribed impurity and association with infertility, illness, death and misfortune made them as essential part of the tompon-tany world-view. ... Read more