Rhodesia: A Complete History 1890-1980 Kindle Edition

Rhodesia is one of my primary areas of interest in Frontier Partisans history. Tales of hunting, prospecting and pioneering in this rich and beautiful land rival anything from the Ohio River Valley frontier, the days of the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade or from the harsh borderlands of Apacheria.You can well imagine my delight when I discovered that the estimable Peter Baxter has released his history of Rhodesia as an e-book on Kindle. Baxter is an excellent military historian of African conflicts from the colonial to the modern era, as well as leading treks in the veld. His history podcast is quite excellent and worth your time.On his Facebook page, Baxter described his Rhodesia history thus:“It is not by any means a sentimental hagiography, and no one comes out unscathed, but an objective look at a fascinating historic saga of the British imperial period in Africa.”Baxter’s assessments of events and personalities always strike me as judicious and driven by a genuine interest in capturing a truthful picture of people and events, rather than an effort to put an edge on an ideological battle ax. He considers himself a storyteller, and he is clearly fully conscious of the richness of this frontier tale. From the ancient builders of Zimbabwe to the last stand in the face of international isolation and a Communist onslaught, it’s as ripping a true yarn as you can find in the history of the Frontier Partisans — and a hell of an opportunity for a few bucks.While many of Baxter’s books are readily available stateside, his Rhodesia history has not been — and it’s been too expensive for my budget.“It is still available in hard-copy in South Africa and Zimbabwe,” Baxter notes, “but if it generates any interest I will put it out in paperback.”That is an outcome devoutly to be desired. I encourage all of you who are interested in deeply researched frontier history written by a man who can handle himself in the field and who has a flair for storytelling to buy it and review it. This is work that deserves the widest possible audience.

I am now 50% of the way through reading this book, and I am really enjoying it. Being a Rhodesian myself, it's great learning the history behind all the names and places that I am familiar with. I was expecting a dry recital of the historical facts, but instead, it reads like a Wilbur Smith novel. There is however one point that I found disappointing. Peter Baxter naturally goes into a lot of detail on Rhodes, the British South Africa Company, the Pioneer Column, and how they snatched Rhodesia from the natives. But, at the same time as Rhodes was doing this, he was also busy snatching the territories of present day Zambia and Malawi. There is no mention of this at all in the book, I had to go to Wikipedia to find out the details. I thought this would have been relevant, especially as the formation of the Federation is described in detail later in the book.I have now finished reading this book. As I mentioned above, I was born in Rhodesia in 1950, and lived there until the end of 1981, so I personally lived through, and witnessed many of the events described in the book. I found Peter's account to be thorough, accurate, and very interesting. In particular, his assessment of the personal characters of the people involved was fascinating. I now have a much better understanding of what, and why, things happened as they did in Rhodesia. There is an amazing amount of detail in this book, and it is well worth reading.

I lived through a chunk of the period covered in this book. It is a must have for anyone interested in Zimbabwe's history.

This is really a well written, deeply researched book on the history of Rhodesia. I was pleased to discover that the story started well before 1890 as the title suggests, but back in the 1500's. This early history gives an excellent backdrop to the more recent history of the country. This book is well worth reading for anyone with any interest in Rhodesia. It is certainly not a dry history book. It is written in an engaging style and does read more like an adventure novel. If this was my school history book I may have actually enjoyed the subject and done much better in the subject. Excellent work. I cannot recommend it any higher.

As a white Rhodesian born in 1950 I aquired a considerable depth of knowledge about the political and racial climate from an early age. This book helped to flesh out my own experiences and correct some misperceptions.

So well written, In depth and insightful. I loved it! I just wish it covered more of the modern history

Enjoyed political and military detail and believe the report was factual and non-racial