The Boer War

by Martin Bossenbroek, Yvette Rosenberg (Translator)

Overview

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 a campaign of systematic terror against the civilian population.

     In The Boer War, winner of the Netherland's 2013 Libris History Prize and shortlisted for the 2013 AKO Literature Prize, the author brings a completely new perspective to this chapter of South African history, critically examining the involvement of the Netherlands in the war. Furthermore, unlike other accounts, Martin Bossenbroek explores the war primarily through the experiences of three men uniquely active during the bloody conflict. They are Willem Leyds, the Dutch lawyer who was to become South African Republic state secretary and eventual European envoy; Winston Churchill, then a British war reporter; and Deneys Reitz, a young Boer commando. The vivid and engaging experiences of these three men enable a more personal and nuanced story of the war to be told, and at the same time offer a fresh approach to a conflict that shaped the nation state of South Africa.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781609807474
Publisher:	Seven Stories Press
Publication date:	01/30/2018
Pages:	464
Sales rank:	450,974
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

MARTIN BOSSENBROEK is an associate professor and historian at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. He graduated from the Free University of Amsterdam in 1980 and received his doctorate from the University of Leiden in 1992. He is the author of many scholarly articles, and The Boer War is his seventh published book.

Translator YVETTE ROSENBERG was born in Johannesburg and educated at the universities of Cape Town and Natal. After immigrating to the Netherlands, she was employed as a translator and editor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague from 1983 to 2005. Since 1995 she has also worked on numerous freelance translation projects, including for the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum. She lives in Amsterdam and Cape Town.

Table of Contents

Prologue - Heritage Day Bloenfontein, 24 September 2011 vii

Part I For a good Cause June 1884 - Octoer 1899

An extraordinary meeting (Amsterdam, June 1884) 1

For thou art dust (Pretoria, October 1884) 11

Hunger for land (Veertienstroom, January 1885) 18

Gold (Johannesburg, January 1887) 29

Concessions (Pretoria, June 1887) 39

Boers and Hollanders, love and hate (Amsterdam, November 1889) 49

Rhodes & Company (Pretoria, July 1892) 57

Lifeline (Lourenço Marques, July 1895) 67

To arms (Berlin, January 1896 79

Diamond Jubilee (London, May 1897) 91

A parting of ways (Pretoria, February 1898) 100

Last chances (Atlantic Ocean, January 1899) 111

Part II Like a boys' adventure story October 1899 - June 1900

Rule, Britannia! (Southampton, 14 October 1899) 133

War on four fronts (Cape Town, 31 October 1899) 141

A hail of bullets (Chieveley, 15 November 1899) 151

The rules of warfare (Pretoria, 18 November 1899) 160

The abandoned mine (Witbank, 15 December 1899) 172

A warm welcome (Durban, 23 December 1899) 181

Blind spot (Spion Kop, 24 January 1900) 195

Breakthrouhg (Monte Cristo, 18 February 1990) 206

Fever (Ladysmith, 3 March 1900) 218

Colums on the move (Bloemfontein, 16 April 1900) 230

Colour (Kroonstad, 12 May 1900) 238

Victory (Pretoria, 5 June 1900) 251

Part III Death and destruction June 1900 - May 1902

Adrift (Pretoria, June 1900) 269

Flushing out the foe (Bronkhorstspruit, July 1900) 280

His own way (Lydenburg, October 1900) 292

Foreign territory (Warmbaths, November 1900) 301

Guilty landscape (Naauwpoort, December 1900) 312

Dead horse (Ou Wapad, February 1901) 324

Winter of famine (Tafelkop, April 1901) 335

Benished for life (Zastron, August 1901) 347

Black death (Herschel, September 1901) 357

Foray (Suurberg, October 1901) 369

Retaliation (Leliefontein, March 1902) 380

The bitter end (Concordia, April 1902) 391

Epilogue - Winners and losers Bloemfontein, 6 July 2012 404

Notes 412

Bibliography 430

Index 440

Editorial Reviews

…what a refreshing volume had been produced by Martin Bossenbroek…

The New York Times Book Review - Thomas E. Ricks

"Bossenbroek seems able to read the hearts and souls of the protagonists of the Boer War without doing any disservice to the truth or the facts. This is what gives The Boer War—as thrilling a read as a kids' adventure storyy—it's gravity and elegance. Bossenbroek lifts the genre of nonfiction to a higher plane." -NRC Handelsblad (Holland's leading daily newspaper of record, akin to the New York Times)

"You know how the war will end, and even so, The Boer War reads like a 460-page thriller. Bossenbroek has worked wonders." -Het Parool (Amsterdam-based Dutch-language daily newspaper)

From the Publisher