An Unofficial 'The Rest Is History' Reading List
H. Rider Haggard
4 books referenced
Books by H. Rider Haggard
Referenced in 11 episodes
February 20, 2025
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Mentioned as the polar opposite to Heart of Darkness - described as a swashbuckling, optimistic journey into Africa that never questions the right of adventurers to be there
May 15, 2024
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Referenced in discussion of European romanticization of frontier life and 'big game hunters' - the hosts recall discussing Haggard's portrayal of 'a man of the plains' in a previous episode.
February 19, 2024
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Referenced when discussing the mysterious location of Ophir, noting 'Ryder Haggard situates it in Africa' in connection with a previous episode on King Solomon's mines.
September 24, 2023
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Referenced in discussion of 'the fiction of empire, and this obsession with manliness, with proving yourself'
June 26, 2023
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Discussed as a Victorian imperial fiction classic that influenced Raiders of the Lost Ark and the adventure serial genre that Spielberg drew upon
June 05, 2023
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Referenced in passing when discussing the Edwardian era's obsession with manliness and brotherhood, noting they had done a previous podcast about this book published about 20 years earlier
May 15, 2023
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Main subject of the episode - described as 'one of the best-selling novels of the Victorian age' published in 1885
October 06, 2022
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Referenced alongside Treasure Island as examples of the adventure story worldview through which Churchill saw his imperial experiences
October 03, 2022
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Explicitly mentioned as a book Churchill had read, referenced when discussing his love of imperial adventure stories
September 01, 2022
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Mentioned as one of the imperial adventure stories Tolkien read as a boy, written in the mid-1880s, about people going to Africa and discovering lost cities
May 17, 2021
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Referenced as an example of earlier colonial adventure novels featuring 'white hunters or white heroes going to remote cities' that modern sensibilities wouldn't permit
Referenced in 1 episode
May 15, 2023
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Mentioned as a sequel to King Solomon's Mines that Haggard wrote quickly after his first success
Referenced in 3 episodes
May 15, 2023
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Described as another bestseller by Haggard published in 1887, called 'another absolutely foundational text in our kind of popular imagination'
September 01, 2022
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Mentioned alongside King Solomon's Mines as another of Ryder Haggard's imperial adventure stories from the 1880s that influenced Tolkien
May 30, 2022
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Explicitly mentioned as 'H. Ryder Haggard's book, She' from 1887, cited alongside A Study in Scarlet to establish the cultural moment of the Golden Jubilee
Referenced in 2 episodes
October 06, 2022
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Mentioned alongside Henty as representative of British imperial adventure writing of the period
October 03, 2022
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Referenced as adventure tales Churchill was 'addicted to' while at Harrow - 'Ryder Haggard and all that kind of stuff'