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Title: The South African War 1899-1902 (Modern Wars) by Bill Nasson ISBN: 0-340-61427-7 Publisher: Edward Arnold Pub. Date: August, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $27.50

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Average Customer Rating: 4 (1 review)

Rating: 4
Summary: The Premier Work On The South African War
Comment: The cover, showing a skeletal horseman in British Army uniform shadowed by vultures, decisively grabs the reader's attention. The book will hold it even more when s/he begins reading. "The South African War" is now the best general work on its subject, deftly summarizing twenty years of research since Thomas Pakenham's "The Boer War."

Bill Nasson made a strong contribution with his earlier "Abraham Esau's War," detailing how Black South Africans in the Cape Colony embraced the ideals of British liberal democracy, and fought and died for them. This book expands on that solid base, covering the whole war in a 300-page text, but omitting nothing of importance. It has four main virtues: balance, concision, comprehensiveness and humanity. Humanity is apparent in Nasson's scrupulous fairness to all three peoples (Afrikaners, Blacks, British) trapped in the horrors of the war, though he does criticize civilian and military leaders whose misguided ambition helped start and prolong it. It is balanced and comprehensive in covering all facets of the struggle, including economic origins, political dimensions, the experiences of soldiers and civilians alike, and the aftermath of peace. As a synthesis, it has less primary documentation than a monograph like "Esau," but Nasson's intimate knowledge of South Africa and the relevant archives is clear throughout.

If there is a (minor) weakness, it lies in the succinct nature of the text: there is no room for a detailed military narrative. For this, Pakenham is still helpful, though it is itself incomplete in coverage of Africans' roles, the main achievement of recent scholarship. On this crucial subject Nasson is more enlightening, though other works are useful such as P. Warwick, "Black People and the South African War." Also highly recommended is a diary (with various editions and titles) from the siege of Mafeking by Sol Plaatje, an early nationalist and writer who helped found the African National Congress in 1912. "South African War" succeeds as a sound analysis of a struggle which presaged many of the problems of both modern southern Africa and modern war. One of Nasson's main conclusions, that the war's primary victims were Blacks both during and after the fighting, is borne out by most major writers; see e.g. J. Krikler, "Revolution From Above, Rebellion From Below." It is skillfully written and conveys all the drama, and trauma, of an oft-mythologized but vicious conflict.