The Daring Heart of David Livingstone is a cohesive look at a complicated man. Jay Milbrandt does an excellent job of trying to present Livingstone as a human being with flaws as well as a strong moral compass. Most of us are only familiar with Livingstone as in the quote by Henry Morton Stanley, “Dr. Livingstone I presume?”.

I found Milbrandt’s depiction of Livingstone to be interesting in that the Dr. seemed to be sincerely trying to bring about the end of slavery, an aspect of the man I had never heard about before. Livingstone used America’s abolition of slavery to champion a similar movement in Britain.

I found this book to be a detailed read and it seems to be well researched. I enjoyed the many quotes from the journals of the actual people in the story.