Benson Bobrick's East of the Sun (1992) , Thomas Pakenham's The Scramble for Africa(1991), and Daniel Yergin's The Prize (1991); Available in paperback for less the $20 each, including  maps, chronologies, indexes and b&w photographs.   

Summer provides time for recreational reading. The above three books are worthy of your attention.  They are popular histories in the style of Alan Morehead's masterful The White Nile & The Blue Nile. The books are about engaging subjects and well written. Each book introduces you to fascinating figures and stories of great endurance, imagination, ambition and ruthlessness. You will read of  explorers, soldiers, statesmen, chieftains, and financiers. There are also the trials and aspirations of migrants, indigenous peoples, families, farmers, convicts and missionaries. You will also learn of innovation, follies, the development resources and the exploitation of the land.  All forces which shaped our contemporary World.  

East of the Sun is about Russia's conquest of Siberia.  It starts in the late 16th century and takes you through to Perestroika.  The Scramble for Africa covers a shorter time period. It tells the storey of European colonisation from 1876 to the beginning of the new centaury.  The Prize is the best of the three books. It tells of the oil industry from just before the American War between the States to the Coalition's War against Iraq, and oils profound impact on social and economic development.  It shows how oil not only fuel war and dictated strategy, but has been the cause of many conflicts.  

There are interesting facets in each book. For example, how Capt Cook's HMS Resolution cause the Russian's alarm because of it's size! Which probably says more about the diminutive craft in which Russia seafarers explored wild North Pacific. Or the accountant in Liverpool, who by examining shipping records, deduced that the native people of the Belgium Congo were being cruelly exploited; exports were far exceeding imports. And how OPEC gained its inspiration from the practices of the Texas Railway Commission.  

The three books show that some things have little changed. The dissonant of early politicians are so similar to current times.  The Colonial era explains much about the current situation in places like Rwanda. The converging of the Great Powers on the North  Pacific in the last century elucidates why it remain a region a tension.  The stories should also remind us that security interest always follow trade. This is an important consideration as Australia becomes increasingly enmeshed with the Asia-Pacific, and traditional trading partners lose importance. Regional defence engagement is inevitable.  The fortress Australia/denial doctrine will look like an hiatus of the immediate post Vietnam era.

Originally Published in Defender, Journal of the Australia Defence Association,  Summer 1995/6

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