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David Livingstone: man, myth and legacy; edited by Sarah Worden. Edinburgh: National Museums of Scotland, 2012. vi + 170 pp. ISBN 9781905267644. £14.99.
The 'Livingstone book business', as Justin Livingstone writes in his chapter on Livingstone and the Victorian publishing industry began in Livingstone's own lifetime, has never ceased to flourish and "has clearly been varied, ranging from the heights of adulation to the depths of deconstruction" (pp.33-34). This attractively packaged volume was published to accompany the National Museums of Scotland exhibition commemorating the bicentenary of Livingstone's birth (see John Mackenzie's article 'The Year of Livingstone' in this issue). As described by T. Jack Thompson in the foreword it aims to present "a wide diversity of detailed research from a variety of scholars - some well-established, but many young and hopefully up and coming. Each of them looks at a very specific aspect of Livingstone's world and context" (p.v).
Such a volume...