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Product Description
Product Description
The prize was great -- not just land, but the riches it held, in the form of diamonds and gold. What became a country called South Africa was, until 1910, a vast and untamed land where great fortunes could be made (and lost); where great battles were fought (and lost); and where great men had their reputations forged, or dashed, or sometimes both. Martin Meredith's follow-up to his magisterial The State of Africa is an equally epic new history of the making of South Africa. Covering the extraordinarily eventful four decades leading up to the establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910, it covers some of the most iconic tales of imperial history. The Zulus at Rorke's Drift; the Jameson Raid; the diamond and gold rushes at Kimberley and Witwatersrand; the Boer wars; the titanic struggle between the arch-imperialist Cecil Rhodes and his Boer rival, Paul Kruger -- DIAMONDS, GOLD AND WAR brings all of these and more together in a stunningly coherent and compelling narrative. History, somehow, just isn't as colourful any more.
About the Author
Martin Meredith is a journalist, biographer and historian who has written extensively on Africa and its recent history. He is the author of many books including The State of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence; Mugabe: Power, Plunder, and the Struggle for Zimbabwe, and Mandela: A Biography. He lives near Oxford.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The book covers South African history from the 1870s to 1910, a fascinating period of history involving the clash of British Imperialism, the Afrikaaner states of the Transvaal and Orange Free State, indiginous Zulu uprisings and the beginnings of the pass system. Central characters are Cecil Rhodes, Jameson, Kruger, De La Rey - and their roles in the ultimate disaster of the Anglo-Boer war.
For anyone interested in SA, late Victorian history or history generally, this is a superb book, well written and fascinating.
For anyone interested in SA, late Victorian history or history generally, this is a superb book, well written and fascinating.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Highly readable and engrossing, Martin Meredith tells the story of the complex, tortured history of the colonisation of the southern half of Africa, including the life of Cecil Rhodes, the Boer War and many less well known aspects vital to understanding the whole. Meredith teases out the tangle of events (many of which were covered in propaganda, lies and concealment at the time) and tries to sort fact from fiction and explain contemporary opinion as well as that of today. Highly recommended.
Format:Paperback
As a student of colonialism in all its forms, I knew relatively little about the evolution of South Africa from 1806 to the start of the Boer War. I recently read a harrowing history of the DeBeer's stranglehold on the diamond industry whose continued existence (or unfortunate persistence), in spite of global sanctions against monopolies and all of the economic evils they entail, has its antecedents in the "entreprenurialism" of Rhodes, Beit and company during the power struggles between the British and Boer over hegemony of southern Africa during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Histories on SA up to this point I felt were scant on the actual detail or origin of many of SA's recent history and current problems. Enter Mereidith's fine work on filling in the gaps.
Here we have a rapid, fast paced account of the development of southern Africa from the time the British annexed the Cape Colony during the Napoleonic Wars, and her troubles in reconciling the needs of two distinctly European settler types, despite successful precedent in other parts of the empire. The story is indeed one of self-determination (Boer) versus the needs of Pax Britanica. The fact that Britain was unable to stand residing side-by-side with a European derivative republic boils down to on-the-ground personalities, jealousies, greed and international insecurity- in short, the love of money dictated the evolution and destinies of entire civilisations, a hangover whose pain is even now still felt.
Criticism has been leveled at Meredith's work for his preoccupation with Rhodes, Milner, Kruger and Smuts etc and this may be so but we must appreciate that these people, and others, were the dominant personalities of the day and did so much to influence domestic, international and imperial strategy during the period. It's hard to feel any sympathy for these people, the British or the Boers. Both races behaved reprehensibly and in complete violation of the laws and institutions of their respective parents (Rhodes and Kruger could rightly be judged war criminals by today's standards). The whole colonial period was nothing short of bare-faced and cynical land grab at the expense of the indigenous populations, the details of which are clearly presented by Meredith's sharpened narrative.
This work sheds a lot of insightful detail on the political games,the personalities who played them and the stakes involved but does gloss over the intricacies of resulting conflicts and how these shaped twentieth century evolution (only a handful of pages are allocated). The focus is squarely on South Africa and so the details of Rhodesia's (Zimbabwe) part in the power struggle is mentioned but not fully fleshed out which I found disappointing in since, from a macro perspective, the stories are intricately linked. For a detailed account of the Boer War, I would recommend Pakenham's superb account on this specific subject. Be that as it may, Meredith's work is however readily accessible, enjoyable, paced correctly and I felt evenly balanced, a fine general history of a very disturbing time in SA's history. I would recommend this for anyone interested in the failures of colonialism and South African history equally. Looking forward to Meredith's next work!
Here we have a rapid, fast paced account of the development of southern Africa from the time the British annexed the Cape Colony during the Napoleonic Wars, and her troubles in reconciling the needs of two distinctly European settler types, despite successful precedent in other parts of the empire. The story is indeed one of self-determination (Boer) versus the needs of Pax Britanica. The fact that Britain was unable to stand residing side-by-side with a European derivative republic boils down to on-the-ground personalities, jealousies, greed and international insecurity- in short, the love of money dictated the evolution and destinies of entire civilisations, a hangover whose pain is even now still felt.
Criticism has been leveled at Meredith's work for his preoccupation with Rhodes, Milner, Kruger and Smuts etc and this may be so but we must appreciate that these people, and others, were the dominant personalities of the day and did so much to influence domestic, international and imperial strategy during the period. It's hard to feel any sympathy for these people, the British or the Boers. Both races behaved reprehensibly and in complete violation of the laws and institutions of their respective parents (Rhodes and Kruger could rightly be judged war criminals by today's standards). The whole colonial period was nothing short of bare-faced and cynical land grab at the expense of the indigenous populations, the details of which are clearly presented by Meredith's sharpened narrative.
This work sheds a lot of insightful detail on the political games,the personalities who played them and the stakes involved but does gloss over the intricacies of resulting conflicts and how these shaped twentieth century evolution (only a handful of pages are allocated). The focus is squarely on South Africa and so the details of Rhodesia's (Zimbabwe) part in the power struggle is mentioned but not fully fleshed out which I found disappointing in since, from a macro perspective, the stories are intricately linked. For a detailed account of the Boer War, I would recommend Pakenham's superb account on this specific subject. Be that as it may, Meredith's work is however readily accessible, enjoyable, paced correctly and I felt evenly balanced, a fine general history of a very disturbing time in SA's history. I would recommend this for anyone interested in the failures of colonialism and South African history equally. Looking forward to Meredith's next work!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A lot squeezed in to one book.
Fairly comprehensive and balanced history of South Africa. Bit heavy going in areas but that's the history for you. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Gr Irving
Good book
Bought this for a present for someone who likes South Africa and has visited on several occasions, they found it very good.
Published 16 months ago by Trevor T
Abit of a trek through South Africa
I took this book with me on a 3 week holiday to South Africa. While it is full of interesting history from the 19th Century, reading it felt a bit like the trek of the Dutch... Read more
Published on 19 Oct 2009 by Mrs. SE Hockenhull
Diamonds Gold & War
This is a really amazing book just as long as you like either South Africa, History or war. If you have been over to South Africa as well you will love this book as then you can... Read more
Published on 9 April 2009 by Mr. G. J. Tunnell
Diamonds,Gold and War the mking of South Africa
A thought provoking book, showed both sides of the conflict, but for once the truth about Great Britains intervention and the brutal treatment of the Boer nation.
Published on 31 Jan 2009 by Mrs. Pa Stander
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