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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The South African War and the Historians
Author:Porter, AndrewISNI
Year:2000
Periodical:African Affairs: The Journal of the Royal African Society
Volume:99
Issue:397
Period:October
Pages:633-648
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:Anglo-Boer wars
historiography
History and Exploration
colonialism
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/723319
Abstract:Historians' perceptions of the significance of the South African, or Boer, War (1899-1902) have changed considerably over a century. For a long time, its military magnitude, its importance in shaping a global capitalist system, and the stimulus it provided to theoretical understanding of imperialism, were felt to give the war an important role in the making of the modern world. Recently, however, things appear to have changed. The South African War has been losing its dramatic, representative significance amongst historians. Both fed by and represented in the centenary commemorations, recent perspectives have replaced these grand sweeps with attention to the many and detailed South African wars experienced at first hand by different individuals and segments of Britain's and South Africa's populations. Of particular promise is the work recently begun on definition of gender and the role of women in the war. There is a case for suggesting that the place of the war in Britain's broader domestic and imperial history is now neglected, in part as a consequence of the fragmentation encouraged by historiographical specialization. In the light of this argument, it is paradoxical that yet other historians are continuing to uncover the international dimensions of the war. Notes, ref., sum.
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