The Edges of War

This book presents for the general reader a new and entertaining account of the long struggle between Europeans and Africans that took place along the eastern frontier of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

This struggle began in 1702 when the Xhosa tribe, migrating south and west from some ancient place of origin, contacted the European 'trekboers', migrating north and east from their settlements at the Cape of Good Hope. When the edges of these human tides met and touched, bloodshed and warfare followed.

The story of these 'edges of war' is the account of how the Xhosa tribe-occasionally supported by the mulatto 'Coloured' peoples-confronted the Boers and later also British settlers and troops in a bitter and bloody contest for control of the land. This struggle-during which were shaped policies and attitudes whose ugly offspring would be the policy of apartheid-lasted for more than a century.

It ended in defeat for the Xhosa when starvation and famine- the terrible results of the remarkable Cattle Killing episode- killed many thousands of tribesmen and shattered the nation.

Using original sources and redent scholarly studies, John Milton, in this lavishly illustrated book, provides a fresh and vivid portrait of the peoples, places, policies and personalities that shaped an important era in South African history.

Genealogical Tree to endpapers, Half Title, Title, Dedication, Foreword, Note on Names, Contents, Illustrations, Maps, Glossary. xvii plus 304 pages text with supporting photographic illustrations.

Very clean copy.

ISBN070211331X