There are only really two ‘complete’ histories of Rhodesia, and only one of these, Peter Baxter’s Rhodesia: A Complete History, can truly be called a complete history (literally in this case). Baxter’s book is pretty good and covers the full sweep of Rhodesian history, but it does not come without its flaws. These, to me, mainly, are how disjointed the narrative can be at times and how Baxter tends to hyper-focus on tedious tales such as the infighting within African Nationalist parties, whilst barely mentioning much more important issues, especially the post-UDI years.
The other book is Robert Blake’s A History of Rhodesia, which I’ll be reviewing here. Blake was a Conservative member of the House of Lords and no friend of Rhodesia (but a good friend of Garfield and Judith Todd, UDI’s most fierce liberal opponents). Still, it is an extensive work coming in at just over 400 pages (with tiny text), and the highly controversial matter of UDI is only covered in a brief epilogue as the book was published in 1977. This was whilst Rhodesia still existed so naturally there is some bias, but it’s tolerable (for the most part). The events in the aftermath of UDI, Blake says, have been left to ‘the future historian [who] will have a great deal more to say about them.’1
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