The Boer War

John Murray Press

2002

xvi, 352 p., [16] p. pl.

9780719555855

Contents:Part I The background to the war: British rule; confrontation and compromise,1815-1886; the descent to war 1886-1899. Part II The combatants: the British Army; rallying the empire; the Boers. Part III The campaigns, 1899-1902: the opening battles; the disasters of "Black Week"; humiliation - Spion Kop and Vaal Krantz; "thank god we kept the flag flying"; the besieged towns of Ladysmith, Kimberley and Mafeking; the turn of the tide; Lord Roberts to the rescue; marching to Pretoria (and Johannesburg); "methods of barbarism?" - Kitchener in charge. Part IV The ambivalences of war: big business, capitalism and the war; last of the gentlemen's wars?; the pro-Boers; foreigners and the war; the press and the war; the literature of the war. Part V The peace: the talks begin; taking stock; peace at last. Aftermath: the winners and losers.

The Boer War was an epic both of heroism and bungling, cunning and barbarism. It had an extraordinary cast of characters - not only leading men like Churchill, Kruger, Rhodes and Kitchener, but minor characters from Conan Doyle and Kipling to Gandhi, Chief Dinizulu and Hector Fighting Mac MacDonald. The war revealed the ineptitude of the British military, and unexpectedly exposed the corrupt underside of imperialism - in for instance the shooting of Boer prisoners of war by Breaker Morant, and the embezzlement of military supplies by British officers. It is also claimed that Baden-Powell let Africans starve during the Siege of Mafeking, and it is likely that Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain profited from arms sales in a war many believe he himself had plotted.;This book presents a fresh view of the war and debunks several myths. There was not, for instance, a straightforward divide between Boers and the British - many Boers fought on the British side, and many British were strongly pro-Boer, denouncing their own side's methods of barbarism. In fact, in the history of the two communitites, the war was an uncharacteristic collision of interests, though it led to long-standing resentments. The overriding aim of both was to maintain European supremacy and to keep Africans and Indians in their place. The sensitivity the British displayed to the Afrikaner volk in the peace treaty is evidence of this. So in fact is the continued division of power and spoils that lasted until the end of the Apartheid era.

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