{"product_id":"b0058u6y34","title":"The Conquest of the Sahara: A History","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn elucidating study of France's colonial occupation in the central Sahara in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEverything a book should be—an adornment for your home, a blitz of information for your brain, a diversion and a hoot, and, finally, balm for your soul. — The Los Angeles Times\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA bravura account . . . Readers with a taste for exotic popular history will savor Porch's wry sense of irony. — Newsweek\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ein  The Conquest of the Sahara , Douglas Porch tells the story of France's struggle to explore and dominate the great African desert at the turn of the century. Focusing on the conquest of the Ahaggar Tuareg, a Berber people living in a mountain area in central Sahara, he goes on to describe the bizarre exploits of the desert's explorers and conquerors and the incompetence of the French military establishment. Porch summons up a world of oases, desert forts and cafés where customers paid the dancer by licking a one-franc piece and sticking it on her forehead.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe Conquest of the Sahara  reveals the dark side of France's civilizing mission into this vast terrain, and at the same time, weaves a rich tale of extravagant hopes, genius and foolhardiness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ePorch is knowledgeable . . . and a fine writer with a dramatic style . . . [he] has done a superb job. ― The Boston Globe\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e[Porch] presents a vivid blow-by-blow account of how this arid, inhospitable land was penetrated at a terrible cost. ― The San Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ANT","offers":[{"title":"Ebook","offer_id":52834611560664,"sku":"YSL56491","price":5.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0835\/3356\/2072\/files\/81LpsC3TpzL._SY1500.jpg?v=1793260569","url":"https:\/\/www.bookmebay.com\/products\/b0058u6y34","provider":"BookMebay","version":"1.0","type":"link"}