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Snedegar's study is a tour de force of research into the political and scientific background of the South Africa in which Roberts lived and made his mark. For my own part I found it hard to put down, opening as it did for me many aspects of the scientific and political life that prevailed a century ago. -- Ian S. Glass, South African Astronomical Observatory In this judicious, enlightening, and well-researched book the work of Alexander W. Roberts, amateur Scottish missionary, educationist, astronomer, and 'native expert', is recovered and brought to life; through Roberts, we are launched into the closely intersecting worlds of politics, science, and culture in the formative period of the first 'new' South Africa. -- Saul Dubow, Queen Mary University of London A compelling biography of a complex man in a complex time. With verve and authority, Snedegar recounts A.W. Roberts' life as a missionary teacher and liberal activist in South Africa's racial policies, while also expounding, most accessibly, Roberts' work as a talented but non-professional astronomer. Both as an activist and a scientist Roberts met with grave disappointments. But his long struggles, in Snedegar's able hands, abound with insights into the political and intellectual life of a strife-ridden colony in the declining years of the British Empire. -- Richard Elphick, author of The Equality of Believers: Protestant Missionaries and the Racial Politics of South Africa

[T]his painstakingly researched biography makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of an important historical period. Historians of astronomy will especially appreciate Snedegar's summation of Roberts's research methods and his correspondence with other (perhaps less starry-eyed) stargazers. Isis In this biographical study, historian of science Keith Snedegar reassesses a neglected historical figure, the astronomer, missionary educator, and politician Alexander W. Roberts...[T]he text draws on a wide range of published and archival sources housed in the United Kingdom, United States, South Africa, Australia, and the Netherlands...Mission, Science and Race in South Africa is a history of paths not taken in the history of South Africa and the Anglophone Atlantic. It is a unique intellectual history of the emergence of modern South Africa, from the perspective of a man who was ill-suited to participate in its cultural and ideological shifts. African Studies Quarterly Snedegar's study is a tour de force of research into the political and scientific background of the South Africa in which Roberts lived and made his mark. For my own part I found it hard to put down, opening as it did for me many aspects of the scientific and political life that prevailed a century ago. -- Ian S. Glass, South African Astronomical Observatory In this judicious, enlightening, and well-researched book the work of Alexander W. Roberts, amateur Scottish missionary, educationist, astronomer, and 'native expert', is recovered and brought to life; through Roberts, we are launched into the closely intersecting worlds of politics, science, and culture in the formative period of the first 'new' South Africa. -- Saul Dubow, Queen Mary University of London A compelling biography of a complex man in a complex time. With verve and authority, Snedegar recounts A.W. Roberts' life as a missionary teacher and liberal activist in South Africa's racial policies, while also expounding, most accessibly, Roberts' work as a talented but non-professional astronomer. Both as an activist and a scientist Roberts met with grave disappointments. But his long struggles, in Snedegar's able hands, abound with insights into the political and intellectual life of a strife-ridden colony in the declining years of the British Empire. -- Richard Elphick, author of The Equality of Believers: Protestant Missionaries and the Racial Politics of South Africa

Snedegar's study is a tour de force of research into the political and scientific background of the South Africa in which Roberts lived and made his mark. For my own part I found it hard to put down, opening as it did for me many aspects of the scientific and political life that prevailed a century ago. -- Ian S. Glass, South African Astronomical Observatory In this judicious, enlightening, and well-researched book the work of Alexander W. Roberts, amateur Scottish missionary, educationist, astronomer, and 'native expert', is recovered and brought to life; through Roberts, we are launched into the closely intersecting worlds of politics, science and culture in the formative period of the first 'new' South Africa. -- Saul Dubow, Queen Mary University of London

Snedegar's study is a tour de force of research into the political and scientific background of the South Africa in which Roberts lived and made his mark. For my own part I found it hard to put down, opening as it did for me many aspects of the scientific and political life that prevailed a century ago. -- Ian S. Glass, South African Astronomical Observatory

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Keith Snedegar is professor of world history at Utah Valley University.

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