Product Description

The Zulu War of 1879 was the most brutal and controversial British imperial conflict of the 19th century. Saul David is presenting a programme on the subject which will be aired in October 2003. He is using research from that to compile this book. The programme will hopefully raise awareness of this young historian's name and of the subject matter.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #60289 in Books
• Published on: 2005-07-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 520 pages

Frank McLynn, Literary Review
'Saul David’s brilliant and magisterial account must now be regarded as the definitive history of the Zulu War'

Economist
’Fascinating, thrilling, convincing... reads like a novel’

William Dalrymple, Sunday Times
'A remarkable work by a huge new talent’

Customer Reviews

Excellent history, compulsive reading
I bought this book because the Zulu War has long interested me (and there's very little out there about it), and also because I recognised the author from BBC's Time Commanders(!)

If you try to find out about the Zulu War from other sources, there is a lot written about Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift but practically nothing about what happened before or after. Saul David's book is therefore an extremely valuable contribution as it gives this in a thorough but digestible way.

The build up to the war is explained, in terms of the political and career machinations of several key individuals. At times it's difficult to keep track of everyone who was involved. The invasion plan is explained, and the narrative moves seamlessly from preparation, to execution, to disaster, to blame. A number of little-reported episodes are expanded on in a fascinating way.

The mid-to-end section seems to go at a much faster pace and it feels a little like Saul David was in a hurry to finish this book. The aftermath gets a very short summary and I was thirsting for more as I read the last page, only to find that the last 25% of the book's pages were assigned to Notes, References, Sources etc. I am prepared to trust that the book is the best-researched piece out there and for the private reader this serves no purpose. What would have been more helpful is better maps, as (at the strategic level) a number of locations are repeatedly referred to that don't appear on the very small map you get of kwaZulu Natal.

A final thought is that the book could have told a little more from the Zulu perspective - the narrative is firmly from the British point of view. I guess this is a limitation of source material but a slight feeling pervades that David is writing about 'us' vs 'them'. A fuller Zulu perspective would have added even greater value and originality.

These grumbles are very small and minor, however, and I would encourage anyone with an interest in the subject to buy this book. It's main strength is David's very readable style and his wealth of small detail that brings this very rich period to life.

Too many serious mistakes
Given the author's admission in his Acknowledgements that he spent only a year researching and writing the book, it's hard not to feel that it is hurried. His prose is engaging and whisks the reader through the rather sad tale easily enough, but there are errors and omissions aplenty, and anyone with an interest in the war will easily spot the influence of recent specialist books on the subject (Lock and Quantrill's controversial study of Isandlwana, for example, Adrian Greaves' Rorke's Drift and The Curling Letters, my own National Army Museum and Prince Imperial books). There is no mention, for example, of the war of raid and counter-raid that took place along the Anglo-Zulu borders throughout the war, and several major characters - such as King Cetshwayo's adviser, the extraordinary 'White Zulu' John Dunn - are introduced only in footnotes. There are, moreover, a surprising number of factual mistakes. The Hales rocket was not fired from its trough by 'a hand-lit fuse' (p. 76), but by tugging on a lanyard attached to a friction detonator. The Imperial Mounted Infantry - a scratch cavalry force raised from volunteers from infantry battalions who could ride - were not 'armed with unwieldy Martini-Henry rifles' (p. 68) but with Swinburne-Henry carbines. James Rorke, the Irish border-trader who gave his name to Rorke's Drift, did not die 'childless' (p. 159); his sons, like many second-generation frontier farmers, crossed the colour divide and married Zulu wives, a choice which placed them outside the rigid confines of white colonial society, and has left their history largely unwritten. Frances Colenso, the daughter of the Bishop of Natal and defender of Durnford's reputation, was not 'Fanny' to her family (p. 64) but 'Nel'. The Natal Carbineers - one of the most important of the locally raised white volunteer units - are referred to as the Royal Natal Carbineers - a title they only enjoyed between 1935 and 1961. Indeed, there is a good deal of confusion in evidence here about the distinction between Volunteer troops - who were part-time soldiers raised under the Natal Volunteer Acts, did not enlist under Queen's Regulations, and who required a special dispensation to fight outside Natal territory - and the Irregulars, who were raised directly by the Crown for full-time service for a specified period.
Nit-picking? Perhaps, but these are all points which could have been resolved with a greater familiarity with even recent literature on the war. There are questionable judgements, too. Was Lord Chelmsford really 'offhand to the point of rudeness when dealing with Colonial officers' (p. 38)? Certainly, Chelmsford's experiences in the earlier Cape Frontier War had left him sceptical of colonial officers' judgement, but his manners were generally impeccable, and Commandant Hamilton Browne - himself a Colonial - noted that his personal behaviour was 'kind and courteous.. a manner that endeared him to all of us. No General that I ever served under in South Africa, was so respected and liked as he was, and certainly, no Colonial officer ever said a word against him'. In dealing with the events surrounding Isandlwana, the author is quick to point out that Lord Chelmsford, splitting his force on the eve of battle, failed to take a reserve supply of ammunition with him; later, at the height of the fighting, Quartermaster Bloomfield of the 2/24th is blamed for being 'pedantic' (p. 135) in the distribution of ammunition. The crucial point, however - that Bloomfield was husbanding the very reserve supplies, which Chelmsford had ordered to be made ready in case he needed them, is missed. And, in assessing the behaviour of an officer who had abandoned his men at the battle of Ntombe, Dr David remarks that 'there were marked similarities between Harward's conduct and that of Major Spalding at Rorke's Drift, the only difference being that Spalding did not abandon his men while an enemy attack was actually in progress' (p. 248). More could not, surely, hang on such a difference as that?
In his account of the crucial battle of Isandlwana, the author has followed a recent revisionist interpretation, which is by no means generally accepted; nothing necessarily wrong with that, but he makes no effort to evaluate contradictory evidence, to the extent that several statements given here simply cannot be supported. At the height of the battle, says the author, Second Lieutenant 'Dyson's small party never received the order [to withdraw] and were speared to a man' (p. 132). In fact, while Dyson's ultimate fate remains hotly debated, the only direct evidence - from either side - comes from the survivor, Captain Essex, who went out of his way to describe how he delivered that order to Dyson, and how Dyson obeyed. The conventional version of the start of the battle of Isandlwana - in which a British patrol stumbles upon the resting Zulu army, and provokes a spontaneous attack - is described as 'great cinema; but not the truth' (p. 123) - despite the fact that plenty of those who were there recalled the incident in exactly those terms.

A gripping account of a tragic and brutal conflict
A superbly-written new history that I found enthralling and shocking. While the events of Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift might be familiar to many, they have never before been brought to life in quite such a compelling way. David gets under the skin of not just the terrified redcoats, but also the proud but doomed Zulu warriors. It is with the Zulu nation that David sympathises most - as they try to sue for peace, the British remained intent on their utter destruction. A heartbreaking story.