Diamonds, Gold, and War: The British, the Boers, and the Making of South Africa
Author: Martin Meredith
Southern Africa was once regarded as a worthless jumble of British colonies, Boer republics, and African chiefdoms, a troublesome region of little interest to the outside world. But then prospectors chanced upon the world’s richest deposits of diamonds and gold, setting off a titanic struggle between the British and the Boers for control of the land. The result was the costliest, bloodiest, and most humiliating war that Britain had waged in nearly a century, and the devastation of the Boer republics. The New Yorker calls this magisterial account of those years “[an] astute history.… Meredith expertly shows how the exigencies of the diamond (and then gold) rush laid the foundation for apartheid.”
New York Times
A many-faceted, sensibly incisive overview of events that could easily be oversimplified, and have been in earlier accounts.
The Spectator
Enthralling....Martin Meredith has made good use not only of recent scholarly work by also of contemporary sources... [Meredith] tells the story lucidly so that the reader can draw his own moral.
The New York Times - Janet Maslin
Diamonds, Gold and War is the work of an author who knows African history intimately…Over time he has sifted through a century's worth of controversy over the context and causes of war between the British and the Boers to arrive at the version presented in these engrossing pages…Mr. Meredith's main accomplishment here is in providing a many-faceted, sensibly incisive overview of events that could easily be oversimplified, and have been in earlier accounts. Dismissing reductive ideas like the thesis that capitalism and imperialism collided to create a war that would benefit both, he shows how one misstep led to another, how fear yielded miscalculations, how national pride and arrogance created such poisonous conditions.
The Washington Post - Douglas Foster
"The buildup to this catastrophe [the Boer War] provides the narrative spine for Martin Meredith's accessible, nimble and moving account of the creation of pre-apartheid South Africa. It is complicated history, marked not only by the rivalries of European colonists but also by the varied fates of the indigenous groups the settlers overran. Without sacrificing nuance to story-line, Meredith manages to thread the tale through novelistic scenes and direct quotation."
The New Yorker
[an] astute history . . . Meredith expertly shows how the exigencies of the diamond (and then gold) rush laid the foundation for apartheid.
Winnipeg Free Press
engrossing . . . Anyone interested in African history and the British Empire will find this book fascinating.
Kirkus Reviews
The unruly formation of South Africa, set to a backdrop of war over the country's invaluable resources. Meredith (The Fate of Africa: From the Hopes of Freedom to the Heart of Despair, 2005, etc.) plunders his expansive knowledge of the continent's history once again for this examination of the genesis of current-day South Africa. A ten-page introduction sketches Britain's contemptuous disinterest in the colony before the late 1800s; the main narrative opens in 1871, the year a fertile deposit of diamonds was discovered outside Cape Town. This triggered a hunt for further riches, and the region proved to be positively swimming in diamonds and gold. The author proceeds to take his readers on an epic journey into South African history stretching from 1871 to 1910 and revolving around the brutal, costly war that broke out between the British and the Boers, each side hungry for the riches springing from South African soil. Cecil Rhodes led the Brits, Paul Kruger the Boers; Meredith's vivid depictions of these men and their activities lie at the story's bloody heart. Rhodes is portrayed as a megalomaniac hell-bent on ruling over sizable portions of the globe. (His will contained instructions to extend British dominion throughout the world via a secret society he wished his successors to set up.) The author vibrantly captures the Brits' disastrous misjudgment of Kruger as "an uneducated, ill-mannered peasant." On the contrary, Meredith reveals, Kruger's oafish persona masked a keen intelligence far greater than he was given credit for; acknowledging this is key to understanding the strong resistance the Boers were able to stage in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. The author alsocovers a tremendous amount of ground beyond the battlefield before threading his various strands together to paint a fascinating picture of the Afrikaner nationalism that emerged from this turbulent period and eventually resulted in the formation of Apartheid. No stone is left unturned in this dynamic analysis of an intriguing period in African history.
What People Are Saying
Wilbur Smith
It] will take a prominent place upon my bookshelf . . . I know I will re-read time and again over the years.
Table of Contents:
Map xii
Author's Note xv
Introduction 1
Part I
Diamond Fever 13
Blue Ground 22
Kimberley 33
The Diggers' Revolt 41
Enter the Magnates 50
Part II
The Imperial Factor 63
Oom Paul 74
The Washing of Spears 85
Majuba 95
Part III
The Diamond Bubble 107
The Stripping Clause 113
Dreams and Fantasies 125
The Road to the North 133
The German Spectre 143
The Most Powerful Company in the World 153
Part IV
A Chosen People 167
Johannesburg 176
The Corner House 186
A Marriage of Convenience 194
Part V
The Place of Slaughter 207
The Balance of Africa 214
To Ophir Direct 229
Kruger's Protectorate 238
Part VI
Groote Schuur 247
A Bill for Africa 259
Not for Posterity 270
The Loot Committee 279
Part VII
A Tale of Two Towns 291
The Randlords 302
The Rhodes Conspiracy 311
Jameson's Raid 323
Missing Telegrams 335
By Right of Conquest 354
Part VIII
The Richest Spot on Earth 365
Nemesis 378
The Great Game 386
The Drumbeat for War 403
Ultimatums 416
Part IX
The Fortunes of War 427
Marching to Pretoria 436
Scorched Earth 449
The Bitter End 462
Envoi 470
Part X
The Sunnyside Strategy 481
Vukani Bantu! 494
The Black Ordinance 504
The Sphinx Problem 511
Epilogue 520
Chapter Notes 527
Select Bibliography 539
Index 551
New interesting textbook: In Tuscany or Oahu Revealed
Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation
Author: Edward Chancellor
A lively and authoritative look at speculation from early modern times to the present.
Focusing on speculation as it developed in the world's leading stock markets, Edward Chancellor's story starts with the tulipomania in seventeenth-century Holland, then moves to Britain with accounts of speculative manias such as the South Sea Bubble and the Railway Mania. From the mid-nineteenth century, the narrative turns to the United States, with chapters on the Gilded Age, the Roaring Twenties, and the revival of speculation since the early 1970s, then portrays the disastrous Bubble Economy of Japan in the 1980s. Chancellor shows that the impulses that have shaped speculative behavior are at odds with the orthodox theory of efficient markets. His comprehensive history is interspersed with trenchant commentary on speculation in the 1990s, including such current issues as emerging markets, Internet and foreign-currency speculation, rogue traders, the great U.S. bull market, and our current financial predicament.
John Kenneth Galbraith
Anyone contemplating a stock market venture and certainly anyone now involved should read this book. It is an admirably researched and very well-written account to speculative insantiy from the earliest times to, let on one doubt, the present.
&#; The Economist
Money Magazine
From ancient Rome through today's Internet-stock craze, when it comes to money and finance, the human emotions of greed and hope regularly override cool logic.
Lori Wiener
Financial journalist Chancellor takes a fascinating and often amusing look at the history of speculative investment. From the "tulip mania" of seventeenth-century Holland (when certain citizens gladly paid five times their annual earnings for a single bulb) to the Crash of '29, the leveraged buyout boom and the Fuji Bank scandal of 1991, the author creates very readable accounts of events that might otherwise appear about as interesting as flypaper. Among the most interesting of Chancellor's suggestions is the notion that speculative investment (defined as investment designed to yield a fortune with minimal outlay) is based in crowd hysteria, with individual investors, as well as the market itself, regularly succumbing to vagaries most of our modern world understands as manic depression. Anecdotal as well as factual, Devil Take The Hindmost (the title comes from the infamous "South Sea" investment scam perpetuated in 1720 Britain) is surprisingly quick and engaging. Its appeal will likely extend to the historian, the sociologist and the investor in equal measure.
Barton M. Biggs
The best, most insightful study of speculation and bubbles I have read. It should be required reading for every investor.
&#; The Economist
Salon - Gary Krist
"I daily hear such reports of advantages to be gaind by one project or other in the Stocks, that my Spirit is Up with double Zeal, in the desire of our trying to enrich ourselves."
Sound familiar? It should, given the zealous high spirits of those enriched by "the Stocks" of Wall Street over the past few years. But the author of the above sentiment was Alexander Pope, the British poet, and he was writing about a different bull market -- that of South Sea Company stock in 1720. As Edward Chancellor points out in his fascinating and frightening new book, Devil Take the Hindmost, all of London was caught up in the mania for South Sea stock, which was appreciating at a rate even early holders of Amazon.com would envy. Pope's contemporary Jonathan Swift probably described the era best: "I have enquired of some that have come from London, what is the religion there? they tell me it is South Sea stock."
Widespread market obsession, though, is only one of many ominous parallels Chancellor finds between the current boom and those of the past. After first tracing the history of financial speculation back as far as ancient Rome (unsavory operators sold shares on the Forum, near the Temple of Castor), he outlines the stunningly similar progress of various "speculative bubbles" throughout history -- the Tulip Mania of 1637, the South-Sea Bubble of 1720, the Railway Mania of 1845, the bull markets of the 1920s and the 1980s, and the Japanese Bubble Economy of the late 1980s. In each case, the signs of excess and imminent disaster should have been obvious to all but were lost in the euphoria of the quick and easy buck (or pound or yen). Why? Because each time the public allowed itself to believe what, according to Sir John Templeton, are the four most expensive words in the English language: This Time It's Different.
Arguing that speculative manias partake of a good bit of irrationality, Chancellor rebuts proponents of the so-called Efficient Market Hypothesis, who believe that stock prices by their very nature reflect intrinsic value (in other words, that stock in DutchTulip.com really is worth 4,000 times current earnings, because DutchTulip.com is the future). This faith in the surpassing wisdom of the markets, he contends, is what allows speculative bubbles to develop, aided by the ever more arcane and dangerous financial instruments that thrive in an era of laissez-faire economics.
Casting a critical eye on the current environment (where even George Soros complains that he doesn't understand how certain derivatives function), Chancellor implies that those who believe the current market to be rationally priced may be living in a dream world. "As an anarchic force, speculation invites government restrictions," he concludes, "yet it is only a matter of time before it slips its chains and runs amok."
One warning: Devil Take the Hindmost, while timely and enlightening, is not an easy read. Without an MBA and experience on Wall Street, you may find much of Chancellor's analysis heavy sledding. (If you do, try John Kenneth Galbraith's briefer, more accessible -- and delightfully condescending -- A Short History of Financial Euphoria.) But you don't have to know the difference between a hedge and a hedge fund to understand Chancellor's basic premise. And if you're like me, you'll have two overwhelming reactions: first, to marvel that the more things change, the more they stay the same; and second, to conclude that it may be time to redeem those mutual funds and stick the proceeds under a nice, safe mattress.
Library Journal
In an era of rampant speculation and questionable investor habits, it is a pleasure to read an insightful, well-focused analysis of the events that have dominated social and economic history since at least the second century B.C.E. Starting with the speculative frenzy that gripped ancient Rome, British business journalist Chancellor goes on to provide keen insight into a wide variety of events, including the emergence of stock exchanges from the great fairs of northern Europe, the tulip mania that gripped the Dutch Republic in the 1630s, the insanity of the Mississippi and South Sea bubbles, the robber barons and their impact during the Gilded Age, the events leading to the Crash of 1929, the Japanese bubble economy of the 1980s, the Mexican crisis of 1994, the Asian market crisis of 1997, and the speculative manias that have accompanied the emergence of new technologies, including railroads, the telegraph, automobiles, radio, and the Internet. A well-rounded presentation that should be included in all public and academic libraries.--Norman B. Hutcherson, Beale Memorial Lib., Bakersfield, CA Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
Booknews
A historian with a background in financial affairs, Chancellor looks at stock-market speculation from the 17th century to the end of the 20th, from Daniel Defoe to Hilary Rodham Clinton. He posits that people engage in the activity not just to make money, but from a wider range of human compulsions and aspirations. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknew.com)
The New York Times Book Review - Adam Smith
What makes this account entertaining is the social context: ballads, newspaper accounts, gossip....The particular relevance of Chancellor's useful homily is that it comes just as we are in a huge mania ourselves, one of the biggest ever — the great Internet bubble..... The seasons turn and all the rivers flow into the sea. We read these histories and we know the ending. Yet such is the intensity and excitement of manias that they never lack for participants.
Business Week - Silverman
Chancellor excels at describing the culture of speculative excess.
The Wall Street Journal - Roger Lowenstein
The book is worth reading...in part because it is enjoyable to read of other people's folly, not to mention their avarice and stupidity. And Mr. Chancellor tells the tales well...As Mr. Chancellor superbly shows, it is all too human to nurture a delusion, especially when one has company.
Kirkus Reviews
Cautionary armchair reading for the modern investor. The old mantra about history repeating itself has clearly inspired British financial journalist Chancellor (a contributor to the Financial Times and the Economist) to write this book at this point in time. Although many volumes have already appeared on both financial speculation in general and individual historic events in particular, even well-informed readers will find new material and interpretation here. From tulip bulbs in 17th-century Holland to the American stock crash of 1929—and pointedly including the current boom in Internet stocks—speculation is presented by Chancellor as a common and very human behavior involving all classes of people. The author weaves together a descriptive narrative of major episodes with retrospective analysis by various authorities—indeed, the change in "expert" opinion is often as intriguing as the manipulations of the speculators themselves, since over time conventional wisdom on almost all of these events has evolved. The most prominent and notorious speculators (Cornelius Vanderbilt, James Fisk, and Charles Keating, among others) earn biographical profiles in the text. Chancellor opens his financial adventure story with a rational and articulate description of speculation, then along the way introduces ever-more-convoluted investment strategies and practices, accompanied by articulate descriptions of terms. His book therefore provides a running primer on basic investment concepts alongside the tales of greed, political shenanigans, shrewd maneuverings, and obsession. The author largely succeeds in being fair to the variety of interpretations given to speculation, including opposingcalls for looser and stricter controls. He has some misgivings, however, about the current prevailing belief that the market is "inherently efficient" and best suited to manage itself, at least in the long run. Chancellor closes with an admonition: "As an anarchic force, speculation invites government restrictions yet it is only a matter of time before it slips its chains and runs amok." Timely, beautifully written, ruthlessly informative.
What People Are Saying
Charles P. Kindleberger
Edward Chancellor has combined his considerable talents as historian and banker to produce a riveting account of financial bubbles, followed by busts, in Britain, the United States, and Japan . . . Here is a lagniappe for the banker, broker, investor, and idle Wall Street onlooker.
