Review

General Books

So how does Bill Nasson expect to contribute to a subject on which, even he readily admits, "there is probably no longer much serious debate"? (p. 6) The importance of the South African War (1899-1902) in laying the foundation for what was to become modern South Africa is, according to Nasson, sufficient justification for yet another contribution to the already existing mass of scholarship on the war. Nasson, however, promises not to be drawn into the "perennial academic historical controversy" concerning the origins of the war--although his summary of the prevailing state of the debate is well-crafted and informative for anyone still curious about the matter (see chapter 1). Nasson's approach--not unlike the many narratives that have gone before--is to present a straightforward narrative of the military course of events, and he should be commended on his brevity. It might otherwise have ended up another exhausting tome of military history. In this regard, Nasson's narrative describes the ebb and flow of military campaigns that marked the progression of the war from battlefield actions to a protracted guerrilla campaign. However, Nasson claims to have made his mark by characterizing the war as "an episode struck in the image of the imperial and colonial societies which waged it." (p. 10) It is an interpretation, he says, of how the conflict was waged and how it was seen.	1
In doing so, he breaks down some of the myths that have come to surround the war. For instance, Afrikaner nationalists capitalized on the depiction of the war as a unified Boer "David" fighting against a British "Goliath." Nasson reveals a fractious and uncoordinated Boer leadership that, especially in the early stages of war, was dominated by an aged and conservative elite unable to push home its initial victories, opting instead for a series of debilitating sieges. According to Nasson, there was no uniform Boer republicanism. Any initial impetus towards Boer unity--based primarily on defence of a common homeland--broke down into bitter antagonism between the bittereinders who refused to surrender and the hensoppers who sued for peace or joined the British side. For the British--predictions that the war would present an easy victory over a backward people gave way to a healthy respect for a seasoned foe unlike any they had yet encountered in the colonial context. Such recognition was marked on the one hand by recognition that their enemy was European and therefore deserving of the special considerations of a gentlemen's war. For the first time in a colonial war, for instance, warring sides took prisoners. However, such considerations quickly lost their gentlemanly lustre in the prolonged guerilla phase of the war because the British resorted to a scorched-earth policy and the internment of republican women and children in the notorious concentration camps. Nasson leaves it to the reader to determine whether the internment of women and children was just "a sad but very necessary part" of the war. (p. 12) Nasson is particularly sensitive to the role of women in strengthening the Boer resolve and their resulting victimization at the hands of the British. In so doing, Nasson succeeds in extending the bounds of agency beyond that of the white male soldier. In keeping with his previous research (Bill Nasson, Abraham Esau's War (Cambridge, 1991)), Nasson also takes pains to break down the notion of the war as a purely European affair. Nasson notes the roles of Africans who fought on both sides, and that still-independent African nations hostile to the Boer republicans were a factor in forcing their surrender.	2
For a newcomer to the history of the South African War, the book incorporates recent research and sensitivities to present an excellent overview that is appropriate for teaching at the university level--from first-year onwards. Towards the end of the book, a chapter on the war "a century on" will inspire interest by describing the legacy of the war and its impact on the present. Nasson makes an effort to bring an analysis of the war to the level of the participants, rather than representing it as a mere echo of great men such as Salisbury, Chamberlain, Milner, or Kruger. Nasson's work bridges the gap between classic military history and social history. Readers will actually learn something of the societies that fought the war, and this will help explain subsequent developments in South African history. In this regard, Nasson achieves a good measure of success.	3
Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario Brett Cohen

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