The Boer War

The war declared by the Boers of South Africa on October 11, 1899, gave the British, as Kipling said, "no end of a lesson." The public expected it to be over by Christmas. It proved to be the longest (thirty-three months), the costliest (almost half a billion dollars), the bloodiest (at least 22,000 British lives, 25,000 Boer and 12,000 African lives), and most humiliating war that Great Britain fought between 1815 and 1914.

Thomas Pakenham, whose narrative is based on firsthand but largely unpublished sources, has written the first full-scale documentary history of the war to be attempted since 1910. He has combed the original British documents in the Public Record Office and the material in South African archives, and has traced the private papers of most of the principals (for example, he found the letters of Sir Redvers Buller—the British commander-in-chief in 1899—hidden under the billiard table at Buller's house in Devon). He also unearthed new material from the trunkloads of Lord Roberts's papers, discovered a massive secret journal of the war compiled by the War Office Intelligence Department, and found the private letters from the War Minister, Lord Lansdowne, and other members of the Cabinet. In addition, through research and by advertising in newspapers, he read several hundred sets of letters and diaries written by the men who fought in the war. Finally, he tape-recorded the memories of nearly sixty survivors from both sides—most of them enlisted men, the youngest of whom was eighty-six years old.

Out of this historical gold mine, Mr. Pakenham has constructed a narrative as vivid and fast-moving as a novel. In many ways he challenges the accepted view of historians. He exposes the crucial role of the two "gold bugs"—the richest of the South African millionaires—in precipitating the war. He throws new light on the blunders of the British generals, Sir Redvers Buller and Lord Roberts, revealing the personal feud between the men comparable to the one between Lords Lucan and Cardigan that led to the Charge of the Light Brigade. He writes movingly of the plight of the 100,000 black Africans who served both armies, and explains how the final political victory of the Boers—who lost the war but won the peace—had far reaching consequences, not only for Europe and South Africa, but for the world today.

In scope, scholarship, breadth and impact, The Boer War is a work that will not be superseded for many years.