Jameson’s Raid: The Prelude to the Boer War Author: Elizabeth Longford
Jameson’s Raid: The Prelude to the Boer War (Collectible Hardcover Copy)
An Authoritative Chronicle of the Infiltration that Ignited the Anglo-Boer Conflict
Bibliographic Specifications
- Title: Jameson’s Raid: The Prelude to the Boer War
- Author: Elizabeth Longford
- Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers, Johannesburg
- Publication Date: 1982
- ISBN-10: 0868500372
- ISBN-13: 9780868500379
- Edition Details: Standard Hardcover Release, Early Jonathan Ball Issue.
- Binding: Original publisher’s full cloth hardcover boards with gilt or crisp face titles, housed in the original illustrated dust jacket. Now safely preserved within a brand-new, archival-grade clear plastic protective sleeve.
- Physical Format: Octavo (8vo). Enhanced with essential bibliographic context, mapping, and historical footnotes vital for Africana researchers.
- Language: English
Official Condition Report
- The Book: Very Good (VG)
- Exterior / Boards: The original publisher's cloth covers are remarkably flat, structurally square, and tightly bound. Spine ends and corner tips show minimal shelf-wear, retaining excellent shelf presentation.
- Interior: The core text block is robustly bound, clean, bright, and completely free of standard user highlighting, ink text-lining, or dog-ears. Pages remain crisp. Note a neat, previous owner's name inscription on the first page, adding a touch of personal history.
- Preliminaries / Edges: Shows slight, natural age-tanning and minor foxing (spotting) localized strictly to the preliminary pages and text-block edges, completely consistent with standard 1980s South African paper stock and climate storage.
- The Dust Jacket: Very Good (VG)
- Condition: The original illustrated dust jacket is vibrant, intact, and free of major chips or deep edge tears. It displays minor storage friction and light handling marks fitting its age. It has been professionally cleaned and enclosed in a new clear plastic cover to block future wear and maximize display aesthetics.
Synopsis & Historical Value
Originally compiled by the acclaimed historian Elizabeth Longford, Jameson’s Raid: The Prelude to the Boer War offers a definitive, gripping analysis of the ill-fated 1895 incursion into the South African Republic. Led by Leander Starr Jameson and backed by Cecil Rhodes, the military blunder was designed to trigger an uprising among British expatriate gold miners (Uitlanders) in Johannesburg.
Longford brilliantly pieces together the botched communications, severed telegraph lines, and political conspiracies that allowed the Boer forces to rapidly surround and capture Jameson’s column at Doornkop. This collectible copy outlines how the event caused a major global diplomatic crisis, forced Rhodes to resign, and solidified the inevitable march toward the second Anglo-Boer War. It remains an foundational reference point for collectors of South African military history and vintage Africana books.
Author Profile: Elizabeth Longford
Countess Elizabeth Longford (1906–2002) was a monumental figure in British historical biography and literature. Renowned for her meticulous archival research and highly accessible narrative pace, she authored celebrated biographies of Queen Victoria, the Duke of Wellington, and various global political leaders. Her deep ties to rigorous academic investigation and private correspondence archives earned her widespread praise among institutional historians. In Jameson's Raid, she applied her signature objective rigor to South Africa’s complex colonial landscape, delivering a definitive account that balances political intrigue with battlefield strategy.
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