Baden-Powell (book)

Baden-Powell is a 1989 biography of Robert Baden-Powell by Tim Jeal. Tim Jeal's work, researched over five years, was first published by Hutchinson in the UK and Yale University Press . It was reviewed by the New York Times.^[1] As James Casada writes in his review for Library Journal, it is "a balanced, definitive assessment which so far transcends previous treatments as to make them almost meaningless."^[2]

Particular attention in reviews has been given to Jeal's analysis of whether Baden-Powell was a suppressed homosexual. Nelson Block states ""While the professional history community generally considers Jeal's conclusions on this topic to be speculative, the mainstream press seems to have taken them as fact". He then notes that there has been no published scholarly critique of Jeal.^[3]

Content

The book comprises 18 introductory pages, and 670 editorial pages. It has 19 chapters, covering Baden-Powell's life from birth and home, to his Indian and African periods, the work he did on Scouting for boys, and his marriage. The text is encyclopedically referenced with over 1000 notes.

Editions

• Jeal, Tim (1989). Baden-Powell. London: Hutchinson. ISBN 0-09-170670-X. 
• Jeal, Tim (March 1990). The Boy-Man, The life of Lord Baden-Powell. New York: William Morrow & Company. ISBN 0-688-04899-4. 
• Jeal, Tim (1991 and 1995). Baden-Powell. London: Pimlico. ISBN 0-7126-5026-1. 
• Jeal, Tim (August 2001). Baden-Powell. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-09103-6. 
• Jeal, Tim (December 2007) (in German). Baden-Powell, Gründer der Pfadfinder (translation by Cornelius Hartz ed.). Wesel: Von der Linden-Verlag. 

References