A MILITARY HISTORY OF MODERN SOUTH

Surprisingly, in a country so involved in the twentieth-century’s major wars, with few exceptions, South African professional historians have for decades turned their backs on writing about the armed forces. It seemed that for the Afrikaner historians, the World Wars and the Union Defence Force were ‘English’ with only the Anglo-Boer War worthy of attention. The Anglophone historians, for their part, seemed to think that to show an interest in the armed forces would be to align themselves with Afrikaner nationalism and with apartheid. All too often, when professionals who ignore military studies become interested in writing their superficial knowledge is reflected in their approach to writing about military subjects. Gradually, however, over the past two decades, a new class of professional historians has begun to emerge, trained as historians but also well-informed about matters military. In particular, in contrast to the mass of inaccurate and partisan writing by amateurs, several professionals have brought objectivity and balance to South African military history and, in particular, profound analytical thought. The prolific Ian van der Waag, writer of a great deal of good South African military history, is a leader in these approaches. This is a gripping book – but do not expect to be aroused by the excitement of battle. This is a thought-provoking work with an academic approach. It is written with practical officers in mind, but instead of immersing the reader in the clash of arms, the author’s central object is to describe the intellectual inability of South African governments and the armed forces to prepare for and to conduct war. The scope of the work is wide-ranging, beginning with the Anglo-Boer War at the end of the nineteenth century and ending in the early twenty-first century, with a survey of the recently established South African National Defence Force. Three monumental wars and one long drawn-out