Boer War: A History From Beginning to End

by Hourly History

This book provides an introductory text to one of the most intriguing wars of modern times—a war that saw several innovations, like the use of heliography and indirect fire, and caused the complete overhaul of the great Imperial British fighting machine in its aftermath. It also tells of the first example of the brilliant use of guerrilla warfare by the people who, to this day, have never been outclassed; the Boer on commando.
On the other hand, the Boer War is also an intensely emotional journey cutting to the very core of the horror of war; leaving women and children in a deliberately destroyed landscape, watching their home and all their possessions burn to the ground.

Inside you will read about...
✓ The Causes of the War
✓ The Commando System
✓ Phase One
✓ Phase Two
✓ Phase Three
✓ The Concentration Camps
✓ A Gentleman’s War
And much more!

This book sets out to give a broad overview so that the interested reader will be able to find a point of entry to study further. Perhaps more people studying and understanding this subject is the only way to finally know, “When is a war not a war?”

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Ebooks, War, Africa, Historical

125 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 6, 2018

About the author

At Hourly History, we focus on publishing history books that are concise, straightforward and take no longer than one hour to read.

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Reviews

[Martin, I stand with ISRAEL · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am sure this 40 page book does not do justice in describing the Boer War. However, it did give a good INTRODUCTION into the subject. In one sentence the Dutch Afrikaaners wanted to keep their independence in the midst of an ever expanding British empire.

Surprisingly, the smaller ill equipped Boers put up a good fight against a vastly superior English army. However, over time the Boers were worn down and lost to a larger English military machine.

Strangely enough, three future leaders came out of the war. Winston Churchill was a war correspondent. Mahatma Ghandi was a stretcher bearer for the ambulance Corp. Louis Botha led the Boer troops in the war.

As I said, this was superficial coverage of a very important war. As a side note, this book was given to me for free.

[Mark Hanford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delivered as promised

This was a very clear and informative summary book that indeed does provide the readers with a succinct overview of what was a horrible war, or series there of, during the Imperialistic era of history. Let us all hope that such horrors can be prevented from occurring again.

[David Den Boer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Boer Name

After reading this authors piece of South African history I gained a useful insight into how the southern part of Africa formed in more detail. Having the last name Boer myself I knew the history of the name from Afrikaans to old Dutch meanings and beyond. With personal meetings with citizens and expats from South Africa I was able to gain a meaningful insight into the very basics of politics today. Thank you again to the author and my connections for making this journey into Boer usage pleasant and memorable.

[Douglas Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick and informative refresher

Considering the premise of the 1 - hour series, this book more than delivers. Aside from distilling a somewhat chaotic set of campaigns into a comprehensible framework, this is one of the first works I've read that tries to address the role of black South Africans in the conflict. Do be aware that this volume only addresses the Second Boer War, although it does provide enough synopsis of the First Boer War to understand some of the causative factors.

[Jim D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad little book. I did not realize it it was so short until i began. It is of a series that is supposed to be History in an hour. SO from that POV, it will not be overly detailed or complicated. With that in mind though, it covered key events and players well and provided a good introduction to a very messy and bloody conflict. I will read more in this series.

[William O. Robertson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A war many know little or nothing about. It was a period when modern warfare was being introduced. The war arose between Dutch farmers—also known as Boers (Afrikaners) and British imperial forces. The conflict arose when Britain tried to gain control of the then recent gold and diamond mines at the southern tip of Africa. Another great Hourly History read.

[Bob Cantrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

War for Territory

I now know a little bit about the Boer War of South Africa. This is not an in depth look at the fighting, but a brief telling of the events. Still it does make for good reading and you just might come away knowing more. I liked the fact there is a bibliography at the end.

[Anil Swarup · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very informative and fascinating description of the long drawn war that changed the history of South Africa. The complexities of the war and the events have been brought out vividly by the authors in this book that makes for a fascinating reading.

[David Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

The beginnings of apartheid

The only other knowledge of The Boer War that I had was from the movie “Breaker Morant” about the Australian troops that served. The book seems fair and unbiased.

[Mark Lindholm · Rating 4 out of 5]

History reader

All war exacts a price from the participants as this book illustrates. Everyone came out a loser. In it"s wake a path of destruction was left. Many interesting facts about the war. On to WW1.

[JON GENESES · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crashcourse

I always wanted to know and understand this conflict I knew it contained more layers than an onion but this book helped a lot with a lot of break neck explanations on the important surface level historical events. Thanks guy!

[bruce weldin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A decent read that gives the reader the quick history of the conflict. It’s much better than what American schools taught in the Fifties & Sixties, which was almost nothing. It has instilled in me the desire to know more about this forgotten war & I hope to learn more about all sides of it.

[DavidO · Rating 4 out of 5]

The British

The British empire was pretty evil even though they pretended to be made of gentlemen. This book talks about one war where the British showed how nasty they could be. This war also set the stage for what South África would become.

[Lila · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent overview of the Boer War. I highly recommend it.

[Doofus · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book delivers on its premise --- concise and yet comprehensive in regards to major themes and factors. Highly recommended.

[Billy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good short summary if the conflict.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Over War

A good short explanation of the history behind the Boer War. I have a better understanding of the events that shaped the war.

[Victor Raul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un libro que toca un interesante topico en el desarrollo de Sud Africa. Lleno de datos de interes que permiten tener un panorama sobre este acontecimiento historico.

[George Polansky · Rating 4 out of 5]

A summary of the Boer War. Fact filled.

[San · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good start

This book gives a schematic of the wars between the British and the Boers. Additional books would need to be read to put meat on the bones, details.

[Octavia B. Sithole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short and Sweet

I enjoyed reading this. It's a great starter for those interested in learning about the Anglo-Boer War. Highly recommend this!

[nickwalbridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well researched.

Well written and interesting to read. Although I was born in South Africa I came here to the UK as a child I still learnt a lot from reading this book.

[James Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a topic that I had very little knowledge of. The book has to do with the Dutch, Cape Town South Africa and the mid-1600's.

It's yet another example of a fairly powerful European country trying to control a country that is not only not theirs but is not even in Europe. Of course there's going to be trouble with the 'natives' of the country.

How many times have we seen this same scenario play out? There was a Dutch-English-French rivalry, a series of small wars and the Dutch East India Trading Company. In 1795 they got kicked out and the English moved in.

The book then goes into various wars that were fought there and even brings up the topic of refugee camps that were bad, in one 177 women died and in total over 22,000 children died in this system.

The book points out when the war ended and just how many people died which goes into the tens of thousands. “When will they ever learn?”