Botswana 1939-1945: An African Country at War (Oxford Historical Monographs)

This is the first full study of an African country during World War II. Unusually, it provides both Africanist and imperialist perspectives. Using extensive archival and oral evidence, Jackson explores the social, economic, political, agricultural, and military histories of Botswana. He examines Botswana's military contribution to the war effort and the impact of the war on the African home front. The book focuses on events and personalities "on the ground" in Africa, and also considers Botswana's interaction with and impact upon events and personalities in distant imperial centers, such as Whitehall and the wartime British Army headquarters in the Middle East. The attitudes, aims, and actions of all levels of colonial society--British rulers, African chiefs, military officials, and ordinary African men and women--are likewise studied, thus producing a unique and "total" history of an African country at war.