Book Review: “The Boer War” by Thomas Pakenham

Overview

Title: The Boer War
Author: Thomas Pakenham
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1979); Abacus paperback edition (1992)
Pages: 659 (hardback)
ISBN: 0-349-10466-9 (paperback)

Thomas Pakenham’s The Boer War is, over forty years after its first publication, still the definitive single-volume history of the Second South African War (1899-1902). It is a remarkable achievement of narrative history — exhaustively researched, compellingly written, and balanced in its judgements. For anyone with an interest in the Boer Wars or late Victorian military history, this is the essential starting point.

Content and Scope

Pakenham covers the full arc of the conflict, from the political origins of the war — the tensions between British imperial ambition and Boer independence, the Jameson Raid, the Uitlander franchise question, and the diplomatic failure that made war inevitable — through the conventional battles of 1899-1900, the fall of Pretoria, and the long guerrilla phase of 1900-1902.

The book is structured chronologically but shifts between theatres and perspectives with skill. Pakenham draws on an extraordinary range of primary sources, including previously unpublished private papers of key figures. His access to the Milner Papers (Alfred Milner was the high commissioner whose rigid diplomacy helped precipitate the war) provides unique insight into British political decision-making.

The military narrative is vivid and detailed. The disasters of Black Week (December 1899) — Stormberg, Magersfontein, and Colenso — are described with an immediacy that conveys the shock felt in Britain. The battles of Spion Kop and Paardeberg receive extended treatment, and Pakenham is particularly good on the human dimension: the fear, confusion, and endurance of soldiers on both sides.

Strengths

The book’s greatest strength is its balance. Pakenham presents both the British and Boer perspectives with empathy, avoiding the hagiography of earlier British accounts and the romanticisation that sometimes colours Afrikaner nationalist narratives. He is clear-eyed about British military incompetence (Buller at Colenso, Warren at Spion Kop) without descending into retrospective condemnation. He acknowledges Boer skill and courage while also documenting Boer atrocities against Black Africans — an aspect of the war that earlier histories often ignored.

The concentration camp chapters are handled with particular care. Pakenham presents Kitchener’s camp policy as a military calculation that became a humanitarian catastrophe through administrative incompetence rather than deliberate cruelty — a nuanced judgement that has largely been sustained by subsequent scholarship.

The writing quality is exceptional. Pakenham was a literary historian rather than an academic, and his prose has a clarity and narrative drive that makes the book accessible to general readers while satisfying specialists. Individual portraits — Roberts, Kitchener, Milner, Kruger, Botha, De Wet, Smuts — are drawn with skill and occasional wit.

Limitations

No single volume can cover every aspect of a three-year war fought across a territory the size of Western Europe. Pakenham’s focus is primarily on the British and Boer élites — politicians, generals, and their immediate circles. The experience of ordinary soldiers, Black Africans, and Indian troops receives less attention than modern historians would demand.

The book was published in 1979 and does not reflect subsequent scholarship on the African experience of the war, the role of Indian stretcher-bearers (including the young Mohandas Gandhi), or the war’s place in the broader history of South African colonialism and racial segregation. Readers should supplement Pakenham with more recent works — Bill Nasson’s The South African War 1899-1902 (1999) and Greg Cuthbertson’s Writing a Wider War (2002) offer important correctives.

The maps, while adequate, could be more numerous and detailed. The Boer War was fought across vast distances, and the relationship between geography and strategy is not always easy to follow without better cartographic support.

Relevance to Collectors

For collectors of Boer War militaria, Pakenham’s book provides essential context. Understanding the campaign chronology — which battles were fought where and when, which units were involved, and what the strategic significance was — is fundamental to appreciating the medals, badges, documents, and equipment that form a Boer War collection.

The book’s detailed account of Black Week, the Siege of Ladysmith, the relief of Mafeking, and the guerrilla phase provides background for interpreting the clasps on Queen’s South Africa and King’s South Africa Medals. A medal group that includes the clasps “Belmont,” “Modder River,” and “Relief of Kimberley” can be placed precisely in the campaign narrative — the collector who reads Pakenham will understand not just what the clasps mean but what the soldier experienced.

Verdict

Four decades after publication, The Boer War remains indispensable. It is beautifully written, deeply researched, and fair in its judgements. If you can only read one book about the Second South African War, this should be it. For the collector, it provides the historical framework within which every medal, badge, and document finds its meaning.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Sources and Further Reading

• Pakenham, Thomas. The Boer War. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1979.
• Nasson, Bill. The South African War 1899-1902. Arnold, 1999.
• Judd, Denis and Surridge, Keith. The Boer War: A History. I.B. Tauris, 2013.
• Cuthbertson, Greg, Grundlingh, Albert and Suttie, Mary-Lynn. Writing a Wider War: Rethinking Gender, Race, and Identity in the South African War. Ohio University Press, 2002.

The Author

Thomas Pakenham (born 1933) is an Anglo-Irish historian and writer, the 8th Earl of Longford. His father was the Labour politician and prison reformer Frank Pakenham, and his mother was the historian Elizabeth Longford. He was educated at Belvedere College, Ampleforth College, and Magdalen College, Oxford.

Pakenham spent seven years researching The Boer War, travelling extensively in South Africa, studying primary sources in archives on three continents, and interviewing surviving veterans (a handful were still alive in the early 1970s). The depth of this research is evident on every page. He later wrote The Scramble for Africa (1991), covering the European partition of the continent in the late 19th century, and The Year of Liberty (1969), about the 1798 Irish Rebellion.

Impact and Reception

On publication in 1979, The Boer War was immediately recognised as a landmark. It won the Cheltenham Prize for Literature and was translated into multiple languages. Reviewers praised its scope, narrative power, and evenhandedness. The book substantially shaped public understanding of the conflict in the English-speaking world and contributed to a revival of interest in the Boer War that had been eclipsed by the two World Wars.

In South Africa, the book’s reception was more complex. Afrikaner historians acknowledged its quality while questioning some of its interpretations. British military historians debated Pakenham’s treatment of individual commanders — his portrait of Buller as brave but out of his depth was not universally accepted. But the book’s status as the standard reference has been unchallenged for four decades.

Comparison with Other Accounts

Several other histories of the Boer War deserve mention for readers who wish to go deeper:

• Deneys Reitz, Commando (1929) — A first-hand account by a young Boer fighter who served from Elandslaagte to the bitter end. One of the great war memoirs in English, written with directness and humanity.
• Conan Doyle, The Great Boer War (1900) — Written during the war by the Sherlock Holmes author, who served as a volunteer doctor. A fascinating contemporary account, though naturally limited by access to Boer sources.
• Bill Nasson, The South African War 1899-1902 (1999) — The most important academic history since Pakenham, with particular emphasis on the Black African experience of the war.
• Martin Meredith, Diamonds, Gold and War (2007) — Places the Boer War within the broader context of the South African mineral revolution.

Pakenham’s book remains the best starting point, but serious students of the conflict should read Reitz’s Commando alongside it — the combination of Pakenham’s panoramic view with Reitz’s ground-level experience provides a remarkably complete picture.

The Physical Book

The first edition (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1979) runs to 659 pages with 16 pages of black-and-white illustrations, maps, a comprehensive bibliography, and detailed endnotes. The Abacus paperback edition (1992, ISBN 0-349-10466-9) is the most widely available and affordable edition. Second-hand copies of the hardback are readily available from military book dealers. First editions in good condition with dust jacket are modestly collectible — typically 30 to 60 pounds, reflecting the large print run rather than any scarcity.

The Maps and Illustrations

Pakenham includes numerous maps drawn by the cartographer John Flower, illustrating the major battles, the progress of the relief columns, the Boer invasion routes, and the sweep operations of the later guerrilla war. These maps are essential companions to the text. The Boer War’s geography — the vast distances, the kopjes and dongas, the railway lines that were the arteries of British supply — is central to understanding the campaign, and Pakenham uses his maps effectively to anchor the narrative.

The photographic plates include some familiar images (the long lines of British infantry on the veldt) and some less well-known ones — Boer commandos in the field, concentration camp inmates, blockhouse lines stretching to the horizon. The selection is thoughtful, supplementing the text rather than merely decorating it.

Verdict for the Military Collector

If you collect Boer War militaria — medals, uniforms, weapons, or ephemera — this book is essential background reading. It will help you understand the significance of the regiment names on cap badges, the campaign clasps on Queen’s South Africa Medals, and the dates engraved on swords and bayonets. Understanding the history behind the objects transforms them from curios into witnesses to a pivotal moment in British imperial history. For the price of a second-hand paperback, Pakenham provides that understanding in the most readable form available.