[bookshare-discuss] Submitted: Island at the end of the world
- From: "Brian Miller" <brian-r-miller@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 3 Feb 2007 14:39:33 -0800
All,
I have just submitted for validation the following:
Island at the end of the world: the Turbulent history of Easter Island, by
Steven Roger Fischer, Reaction Books, 2005, pp 400.
From the book jacket:
A fascinating and highly readable history of one of the most exotic islands on
earth' The Economist
'Fischer's robust book dispels the mystery and reveals the tale of the
evolution of an island that, for a thousand years, developed in almost total
isolation' The Good Book Guide
Famed for its extreme isolation and breathtaking monumental sculpture, Easter
Island was a verdant South Sea idyll when the first Polynesian settlers landed
there around AD 700 But by the 16th century, when voyaging in the South Pacific
was far less widespread, Easter Islanders became stranded on what had turned
into a desert like isle, and were forced to adapt to survive In 1722 the first
European visitors encountered a people thriving in total isolation, surrounded
by huge architectural platforms of fitted stones topped by hundred of
monolithic busts Subsequent intruders brought trade, disease and violence, and
the Islanders responded through cultural reinvention new leaders, new rituals,
new gods
Steven Roger Fischer relates a compelling story of how wars, smallpox and the
'Great Death' decimated the Island, and how a despotic Frenchman claimed it for
himself, only to be killed by the remaining Islanders - a population of just
111 He describes its colonization and annexation by Chile, and its peaceful but
insistent civil rights movement in the 19605 Today the population has
increased, as has tourism, and the Island continues to be managed by the
indigenous Rapanui people
Island at the End of the World presents, for the first time in the English
language, a comprehensive history told by a writer who is intimately familiar
with Easter Island's history, its people and their extraordinary story Foreign
interest has never been so keen, and this book is a much-needed history of a
little-known but remarkable place
***
Thank you for considering this unique and fascinating book.
Brian Miller
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