The Boer War was brutal, racially explosive and catapulted the world into the 20th century, prefiguring the worst excesses of modern conflicts; the indiscriminate bombing of civilians, scorched-earth policies and concentration camps. It was also a civil war, dividing families, communities and races. This book includes material and oral testimony that makes this a reassessment of the war that shaped the destiny of South Africa and, as Rudyard Kipling remarked, taught the mighty British Empire no end of a lesson.