The Boer War
By Steve Attridge
The Boer War was one of the great tests of Imperial Britain. Through literature and popular culture, it helped to shape ideas about nationhood in the late Victorian era. In a series of essays, Steve Attridge casts fresh light on these ideas.
Attridge looks at how the ‘new media’ that emerged at the same time as the Boer War began to call into question existing cultural attitudes.
Attridge uses specific images, narratives and motifs as a starting point from which to assess differing attitudes towards both the British nation itself and her Empire as a whole. A particular focus is given to how the motif of ‘the soldier’ was represented both at home and abroad, and how the trauma of the Boer War may have altered these representations.
The Boer War is a seminal work for anyone aiming to more fully understand the late Victorian ‘crisis of Imperialism’, and how changes in the Empire forced ordinary people to turn inwards and re-examine their national culture.