Cecil Rhodes: Flawed Colossus

By Brian Roberts

The time is ripe for a new biography of Cecil Rhodes: the hero of imperialism needs to be seen with perspective to examine the tremendous changes which have taken place since the British Empire was at its height.

Cecil Rhodes: Flawed Colossus is a major re-assessment of the life of Cecil Rhodes, and deals with the man, rather than the politics. It shows Rhodes to be ruthless, energetic, idealistic and very much a product of his time.

The book opens with a depiction of Rhodes as a (far from amiable) child, the son of a country vicar. As a youth he went to South Africa, where he made a fortune in diamond mining, which allowed him to pursue his huge political ambitions.

This book confronts Rhodes’ brutality to the native peoples of Africa, his financial chicanery, his involvement in the farcical Jameson Raid, his suppressed homosexuality, his ideas about white supremacy, and his exaggerated respect for an Oxford education which led to his most lasting memorial – the Rhodes Scholarships.

Cecil Rhodes: Flawed Colossus is a frank analysis of a controversial figure, and is at once illuminating and entertaining.