Thomas Pakenham's 1979 history of the Boer War (1899-1902) remains the standard single-volume account of the conflict. At nearly 700 pages, it draws on previously unpublished sources to cover the war from the bungled British campaign through the scorched-earth tactics and concentration camps that turned international opinion against the Empire.
Pakenham is sympathetic to the Boer cause without romanticizing it, and he is unsparing about British incompetence in the early stages. Essential reading before visiting the battlefields of KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State, or for understanding the deep roots of Afrikaner nationalism.