Prevail

The Inspiring Story of Ethiopia's Victory over Mussolini's Invasion, 1935-1941

By: Jeff Pearce, Richard Pankhurst - foreword

Narrated by: Tom Parks

Length: 24 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

It was the war that changed everything, and yet it's been mostly forgotten: in 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia. It dominated newspaper headlines and newsreels. It inspired mass marches in Harlem, a play on Broadway, and independence movements in Africa. As the British Navy sailed into the Mediterranean for a white-knuckle showdown with Italian ships, riots broke out in major cities all over the United States. Italian planes dropped poison gas on Ethiopian troops, bombed Red Cross hospitals, and committed atrocities that were never deemed worthy of a war crimes tribunal. But unlike the many other depressing tales of Africa that crowd book shelves, this is a gripping thriller, a rousing tale of real-life heroism in which the Ethiopians come back from near destruction and win. Tunneling through archive records, tracking down survivors still alive today, and uncovering never-before-seen photos, Jeff Pearce recreates a remarkable era and reveals astonishing new findings. He shows how the British Foreign Office abandoned the Ethiopians to their fate, while Franklin Roosevelt had an ambitious peace plan that could have changed the course of world history had Chamberlain not blocked him with his policy on Ethiopia. And Pearce shows how modern propaganda techniques, the post-war African world, and modern peace movements all were influenced by this crucial conflict a war in Africa that truly changed the world.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2014 Jeff Pearce. Foreword by Richard Pankhurst (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Very inclusive

Very broad and inclusive. The only thing is the audio reader couldn’t pronounce Ethiopian names and places correctly. I am from Ethiopia and most of the time I didn’t understand people’s names and place from the audio. The reader should put enough effort to rehearse the names.

Top book! Loved it.

Well researched and well written. Highly recommended. The book flows so nicely. A wonderful page-turner!!!

besy book on the subject

great story about the leadup invasion and liberation of etheopia in the 1930s through 1940s

Fascinating untold story written in great detail

I vaguely knew of this war but now having read this, I feel like i understand a key piece of 20th century history. The interwar period is fully outlined in this book via this one conflict.

Remarkable History

It’s amazing how this really redefines WW2 for me significantly. Such an understudied war and period in Africa. All the precursors of the Horrors of war can be found playing out before the Allied nation would realize the same suffering years later. Ethiopia just became an even more amazing place.

A fascinating tale of a neglected piece of international history

We don’t talk about Ethiopia enough. And we definitely don’t talk about Italian accountability for war crimes in Libya and Ethiopia enough either. This book tells a very important and seldom-remembered piece of history that has great impact through to the modern day.

Ethiopian view

Well-written book on the Ethiopians view of the war. Numerous first person accounts. Excellent details on foreign-policy. Little discussion of military events.

Details matter

As an Ethiopian American, I value the global appeal this story has to fill in often neglected rise of global African diaspora consciousness at that particular time. Jeff pulls together an incredible amount of information to tell a story which has equal value today as it did almost more than 80 years ago. Thank you!

overwhelmed

In lightning and heart warming as well as convicting. There is so much for us to learn from this great nation and the errors of the leaders of the world. I hope we have learned our lesson. I fear we have not.

Can’t stop listening!

As a young Ethiopian, I honestly say I wasn’t educated about this important history except the few tv programs that are shown around the celebration of victory of Adewa and some local books about our heroes. This book really give me a piece of Ethiopians history and the history behind the known and unknown heroes and figures I hear about. Answered my questions about how Haile Selassie went to England when patriots are fighting, how he returned, how he managed to rally people/countries behind him, and many more. Thank you for the writer.
Amazing book! and I do recommend it for all.