The second Boer War is the most important war in South African history; indeed, without it, South Africa would likely have not existed. But it’s also one of the least understood conflicts of the era. Over a century of Leftist bleating and insidious, self-serving revisionism, first by Afrikaner nationalists and then by the apartheid regime, has left the layman with a completely skewed view of the war. Incredibly, most people will tell you that the British attacked the Boers to steal their g...

During the course of the war some sixteen Editions of this work have appeared, each of which was, I hope, a little more full and accurate than that which preceded it. I may fairly claim, however, that the absolute mistakes made have been few in number, and that I have never had occasion to reverse, and seldom to modify, the judgments which I have formed. In this final edition the early text has been carefully revised and all fresh available knowledge has been added within the limits of a s...

When Alexandra ("Bo") Fuller was home in Zambia a few years ago, visiting her parents for Christmas, she asked her father about a nearby banana farmer who was known for being a "tough bugger." Her father's response was a warning to steer clear of him; he told Bo: "Curiosity scribbled the cat." Nonetheless, Fuller began her strange friendship with the man she calls K, a white African and veteran of the Rhodesian war. With the same fiercely beautiful prose that won her acclaim for Do...

On 22 January 1879 a 20,000-strong Zulu army attacked 1,700 British and colonial forces. The engagement saw primitive weapons of spears and shields clashing with the latest military technology. However, despite being poorly equipped, the numerically superior Zulu force crushed the British troops, killing 1,300 men, whilst only losing 1,000 of their own warriors. It was a humiliating defeat for the British Army, who had been poorly trained and who had underestimated their e...

The short but savage Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 pitched well-equipped but complacent British soldiers into combat with the Zulu, one of history's finest fighting forces.The clashes between these two different armies prompted tactical innovation on both sides, as the British and their Zulu opponents sought to find the optimal combination of mobility, protection and firepower. This engrossing study traces the changing face of infantry combat in the Anglo-Zulu War. Three ...

The years between the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 are sometimes described as 'The Long Peace', the there were in fact British Soldiers fighting somewhere in the world throughout the whole of that period, usually in an effort to restore order in some far-flung parts of the Empire 'upon which the sun never set.' Although these campaigns have been well documented by numerous historians, Robbert Giddings, well known as author, journalist and write...

In "The War in South Africa, Its Cause and Conduct," Arthur Conan Doyle provides a meticulous examination of the Second Boer War (1899-1902), dissecting not only the military strategies employed but also the socio-political factors that precipitated this complex conflict. Doyle's literary style is characterized by a blend of passionate rhetoric and rigorous analysis, appealing to both the lay reader and the historian. Written during a period marked by imperial ambition and burgeoning natio...

South Africa, 1902 – Canadian Lt. Harry Lanyard, British Army, leads a mounted patrol of hard-bitten Colonial troopers into the veld to recover $15 million worth of gold bullion hidden by Transvaal President Paul Kruger during the Second Anglo-Boer War. To succeed, Lanyard must battle tough enemy commandos, murderous bandits, and an enemy spy sworn to kill him, while striving to regain the love of his American-Boer sweetheart allied with a ruthless Russian secret agent.

The Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) is one of the most intriguing conflicts of modern history. It has been labeled many things: the first media war, a precursor of the First and Second World Wars, the originator of apartheid. The difference in status and resources between the superpower Great Britain and two insignificant Boer republics in southern Africa was enormous. But, against all expectation, it took the British every effort and a huge sum of money to win the war, not least by unleashing ...

An Empty Plate analyses the state of the South Africanagri-food system. Tracy Ledger demonstrates how this system is perpetuating poverty, threatening land reform, entrenching inequality and tearing apart our social fabric. The book asks two crucial questions: how did we get to this point and how might we go about solving the problem.This is a story of money, of power, of unanticipated consequences, and of personal and social tragedy. But it is also a story of what is possible if we reimag...

Here is an idiosyncratic view of one of South Africa's loveliest districts. History is certainly revealed, but the book is much more than dry-as-dust fact and chronologies. The mountains and valleys and abundant vegetation of the northern Drakensberg have inspired many people. Their stories enliven almost every page.As Tito Mboweni states in his foreword: "This is a book about Tzaneen, the vast splendour of its mountain ranges, the historical events that shaped its history, its ric...

Waged across an inhospitable terrain which varied from open African savannah to broken mountain country and arid semi-desert, the Anglo-Boer wars of 1880–81 and 1899–1902 pitted the British Army and its allies against the Boers' commandos.The nature of warfare across these campaigns was shaped by the realities of the terrain and by Boer fighting techniques. Independent and individualistic, the Boers were not professional soldiers but a civilian militia who were bou...