Southern Africa was once regarded as a worthless jumble of British colonies, Boer republics, and African chiefdoms, a troublesome region of little interest to the outside world. But then prospectors chanced upon the world's richest deposits of diamonds and gold, setting off a titanic struggle between the British and the Boers for control of the land. The result was the costliest, bloodiest, and most humiliating war that Britain had waged in nearly a century, and the devastation of the Boer republics. The New Yorker calls this magisterial account of those years " an] astute history.... Meredith expertly shows how the exigencies of the diamond (and then gold) rush laid the foundation for apartheid."

Author: Martin Meredith
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Published: 09/01/2008
Pages: 592
Weight: 1.69lbs
Size: 9.25h x 6.22w x 1.66d
ISBN: 9781586486419

About the Author
Martin Meredith is a journalist, biographer, and historian who has written extensively on Africa and its recent history. His previous books include Mandela; Mugabe; Diamonds, Gold, and War; Born in Africa; and The Fate of Africa. He lives near Oxford, England.