The South African War Reappraised, Donal Lowry

The South African War was a catalyst in the creation of modern South Africa and was a major international event, which had profound implications for British rule in other parts of their colonial empire. This was  South Africa’s own ‘Great War’ – the largest conflict waged by the British in the century between the Napoleonic Wars and the First World War. It shaped political discourse among South Africa’s various communities and moulded the outlook for a generation of imperial administrators, soldiers and anti-colonial activists. The war launched South Africa as a moral issue of global significance, involving leading humanitarians, foreign pro-Boer volunteers, as well as pro-Imperial contingents from various dominions and colonies, and would later find echoes in the campaign against apartheid. This volume includes a historiographical review of a century of writing on the origins of the war. It examines South Africa’s place in the imperial structure and reappraises its impact on imperial defence and the political identities of Africans, Asians, Boer commandos and Cape Afrikaners. An analysis of the role of the media and the effects of the war on nationalists in India, Ireland and the Dominions is also included. The South African War Reappraised will be of particular interest to students of imperialism, modern South Africa, nationalism and the media.