This riveting account of the Boer War as experienced by a young Boer irregular balances out our through-English-eyes perception of this hard-fought, brutal conflict (which saw the first use of concentration camps, if not of the harshness later associated with the phenomenon). Reitz offers insight into how insurgents think and prioritize, and how what was essentially a militia inflicted defeat after humiliating defeat on the British Army and its auxiliaries before the full weight of the Empire was brought to bear. A thrilling, edge-of-your-seat war-story, it’s also an account of how “another” anti-British revolution ultimately failed.
Ralph Peters is the author of twenty-nine books, including works on strategy and military affairs, as well as best-selling, prize-winning novels. He has published more than a thousand essays, articles, and columns. As a US Army enlisted man and officer, he served in infantry and military Intelligence units before becoming a foreign area officer and global scout. After retiring in 1998, he covered wars and trouble spots in the Middle East and Africa. He now concentrates on writing books but remains Fox News’s strategic analyst. His latest novel, Hell or Richmond, a gritty portrayal of Grant's 1864 Overland Campaign, follows his recent New York Times best seller, Cain at Gettysburg, for which he received the 2013 Boyd Award for Literary Excellence in Military Fiction from the American Library Association. Video: Ralph Peters on the importance of military history education in the military. Peters is also the author of the Civil War novel, The Damned of Petersburg.
