Buy this book on-line

LEHMANN,JOSEPH: : THE FIRST BOER WAR

LONDON.MILITARY BOOK SOCIETY,1972.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn thus (originally published CAPE,1972 - this edn published by The Military Book Society.)FINE/FINE.No owner inscriptn,no price-clip to dw/dj. Sepia portrait and colour pictorial illustrated upper wrap,rear wrap a mixture of same and b/w photographs. Minimal shelf-wear to edges,negligible creasing,one tiny nick to head+foot of spine/backstrip with very light bumping - no other tears.Top+fore-edges bright and clean,contents pristine.Tan paper-covered bds with gilt banded,red title-label with bright,stamped gilt letters to spine/ backstrip.Black and cream contemporary illustrations by R.C.Woodville:fep of General Colley leading his men in the battle of Majuba Hill,rear eps of President Brand arriving at Laing's Nek with news of peace after the Boer victory in the Transvaal War.8vo,8-330pp includes half-title+title pages,contents+ illustrations lists,author preface,37 contemporary b/w illus and photographs on 12pp throughout text,3 full-page b/w maps,chapter notes and an index. Rated by the number of combatants involved,the fighting at Majuba Hill in 1881 was a mere skirmish.Yet few battles have had a more immediate or far-reaching effect.The Boers not only won back the Transvaal from the British and made it the centre of intensified nationalist feeling, but altered the whole course of South African history.They also caused a radical change in Imperial policy,encouraging Parnell and the Irish Nationalists to seek Home Rule,and dealt a grievous blow to the pride of the British Army,which was still seeking revenge when the Second Boer war began in 1899. In this definitive study of a small war, Professor Lehmann describes the events that culminated in a unique people confronting and confounding an empire at the height of its wealth and power.Having trekked north in apalling conditions after the British abolition of slavery in Cape Colony,the fiercely independent Boers rose in revolt against inept taxation by the British,who annexed the Transvaal to further their aspiration for a Federation of South African States.At this time little gold had been found in the territory and the British felt only contempt for simple farmers who,they thought,could do little but drive cattle, shoot natives and cling to the fanatical religious belief in a flat earth. Boer soldiers,any of whom might suddenly decide to go home (and many did),were expected to take to the field on their own horses and in patched farm clothes at forty-eight hours' notice,armed only with rifles and their faith. In an army of less than seven thousand men run by ballot,where trivial promotions as well as vital matters of strategy were put to the vote,stealthy hit-and-run tactics became the order of the day. Refusing to surrender his prized individual freedom,the Boer acted on his own initiative,preferring to fight on the defensive to preserve both his life and his religious justification.To him the etiquette observed by an enemy that crossed the veldt on foot in bright red uniforms,weighed down with packs,and expecting to fight in the open according to certain fixed rules,seemed the very height of folly.Based in large part on hitherto unused British and South African documents,this account of the first among nationalist struggles in Africa is both dramatic and authoritative,and provides a worthy successor to the author's highly praised biography of General Wolseley, All Sir Garnet. Please contact seller, because of the value of this item, for correct, insured shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page!

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn thus.

LEHMANN, Joseph : The First Boer War

Jonathan Cape, 1972

First Edition. A fine unread copy in a fine d.w.

Bibliophile Bookbase for antiquarian books, maps and prints.