The prize was great -- not just land, but the riches it held, in the form of dia
monds and gold. What became a country called South Africa was, until 1910, a vas
t and untamed land where great fortunes could be made (and lost); where great ba
ttles were fought (and lost); and where great men had their reputations forged,
or dashed, or sometimes both. Martin Meredith's follow-up to his magisterial The
State of Africa is an equally epic new history of the making of South Africa.
