Zulu Rising
The Epic Story of iSandlwana and Rorke's Drift
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4.7 • 9 Ratings
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- £8.99
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- £8.99
Publisher Description
'A definitive account of one of the most dramatic encounters in the whole history of Empire . . . [a] tour de force' The Daily Mail
'Ian Knight manages to expose many of the Victorian myths while still capturing the kind of epic excitement that makes Zulu so stirring. It is a first class work of military history, not least for its evocative and extensive use of Zulu sources' Sunday Times
The battle of iSandlwana was the single most destructive incident in the 150-year history of the British colonisation of South Africa. In one bloody day over 800 British troops, 500 of their allies and at least 2000 Zulus were killed in a staggering defeat for the British empire. The consequences of the battle echoed brutally across the following decades as Britain took ruthless revenge on the Zulu people.
In Zulu Rising Ian Knight shows that the brutality of the battle was the result of an inevitable clash between two aggressive warrior traditions. He gives full weight to the Zulu experience and explores the reality of the fighting through the eyes of men who took part on both sides, looking into the human heart of this savage conflict. Based on new research, including previously unpublished material, Zulu oral history, and new archaeological evidence from the battlefield, this is the definitive account of a battle that has shaped the political fortunes of the Zulu people to this day.
'This new history by Ian Knight is thorough and definitive. Knight uses first-hand sources, both Zulu and British, with admirable even-handedness, to examine the bloody clash between two different warrior traditions' Sunday Telegraph
Customer Reviews
Fantastic Book! ...but...
Fantastic Book for anyone interested in the Anglo Zulu war, huge amount of detail....but.... it's just a shame the maps included are of such a low resolution they are almost impossible to read and are split over two screens! PLEASE UPDATE THE MAPS IN A HIGHER RESOLUTION AND ON ONE SCREEN FOR EACH MAP! ....thank you.
Zulu Rising A most Excellent Book
Many people will, I guess, want to learn specifically about the Anglo/Zulu battles of Rorkes Drift and Isandlwana and this is where I started off. However I feel many will want to know far more about the Zulu history and the story of the British in South Africa during the nineteenth century and even earlier, particularly the Natal area. This very intensely reasearched book gives all of this information and very much more. It is beautifully written and is an eminently readable account of a quite complicated time in British and South African history. Additionally and very importantly, the book, although written by an Englishman does not show the bias towards the author's country many books often do. This is a captivating story and a history lesson all rolled into one. Many other books have been written about parts or all of this subject, some in fact by this author, but nothing I have found previously gives such an encompassing account of all the facts in the way this book does.