Writing A Wider War: Rethinking Gender, Race, and Identity in the South African War, 1899–1902

by Greg Cuthbertson, Albert Grundlingh (Contributor), Mary-Lynn Suttie (Contributor)

A century after the South African War (1899-1902), historians are beginning to reevaluate the accepted wisdom regarding the scope of the war, its participants, and its impact. Writing a Wider War charts some of the changing historical constructions of the memorialization of suffering during the war.

Writing a Wider War presents a dramatically new interpretation of the role of Boer women in the conflict and profoundly changes how we look at the making of Afrikaner nationalism. African experiences of the war are also examined, highlighting racial subjugation in the context of colonial war and black participation, and showcasing important new research by African historians.

The collection includes a reassessment of British imperialism and probing essays on J. A. Hobson; the masculinist nature of life on commando among Boer soldiers; Anglo-Jewry; secularism; health and medicine; nursing, women, and disease in the concentration camps; and the rivalry between British politicians and generals. An examination of the importance of the South African War in contemporary British political economy, and the part played by imperial propaganda, rounds off a thoroughly groundbreaking reinterpretation of this formative event in South Africa's history.

376 pages, Hardcover

First published December 31, 2002

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here is an attempt to write about the Anglo-Boer-African War without falling into the usual trap of describing it from a (usually unaware) British or Boer perspective. The roles played by Africans in the war--roles that the Brits and Boers often officially denied and denounced--are examined with a view to describing the impact events had on the Africans themselves, rather than on the outcome of the war. On the whole, well-written. I'd say this sort of study is essential, at least compared to some of the stalwart accounts of the war written fifty years (or even more recently) ago.