Pre-reading on the Boer War

I hope that everyone has had a restful half term!

Current Year 12s - we will be covering the Boer War up until Christmas. The schedule is very tight and it is a big topic. There will be no time to go back and go over topics again. Therefore, you MUST read up on these topics before we cover them. I will give you a copy of this sheet in class, but it is your responsibility to read up on the topics before the deadlines and to have completed notes on them.

Please also note - i have a lovely stack of reading for you on the first topic (causes of the Boer War). I won't see you for a week, so please come and collect it. I'll try and remind you in registration.

Also, I am currently reading Dennis Judd's book 'The Boer War' and can highly recommend it. It's accessible and very readable, and groups topics together (e.g. military defeats, Liberal reforms), so might be a bit less formidable than the Pakenham book. You can order the book from the library.

Topic to research	Date to be completed by	What specific books/articles you have read (full reference please – the course textbook doesn’t count)
Causes of the Boer War	11th November
Fighting the Boer war – the three stages of the war – initial defeat for British (‘Black Week’), followed by seeming success (e.g. capture of Pretoria/Bloemfontein), followed by the Guerilla War. Also, attitudes to the ‘scorched earth’ policy – particularly the work of Emily Hobhouse	18h November
How the war was reported, the 1900 ‘Khaki election’, ‘National Efficiency’	25th November
Liberal reforms after the war	2nd December
Reforms to the army after the Boer War (e.g. Haldane reforms)	9th December
The significance of the Boer War – particularly in terms of lessons learned before WW1	16th December