Milner: Last of the Empire Builders, by Richard Steyn

Milner: Last of the Empire Builders by Richard Steyn. Jonathan Ball Publishers. Johannesburg, South Africa 2022. ISBN 9781776191789 / ISBN 978-1-77-619178-9

A rich and beautifully nuanced portrait of Lord Alfred Milner (1854-1925), the last of the empire builders, written by Richard Steyn.

Richard Steyn  

Preface

It is hardly possible for any homegrown South African to write a dispassionate account of the life of Alfred, Lord Milner. As the principal instigator of the Anglo-Boer (or South African) War of 1899-1902, Alfred Milner provoked a conflict whose consequences are still felt a century and more later. The British journalist Leo Amery general editor of a seven-volume history of the war for The Times of London, admitted that absolute impartiality' in dealing with its origins was probably unachievable. His own account, he confessed, had been written 'frankly from the point of view of one who is convinced that the essential right and justice of the controversy have been with his own country'. I admit equally frankly to believing the justice of the argument to lie on the other side, though my aim in this book is neither to vilify nor justify Milner but rather to explain what I believe motivated this enigmatic and driven individual, whose actions have so influenced the lives of every South African. As the incomparable historian CW de Kiewiet reminds us, those who write about this seminal time in South Africa's history often pay insufficient heed to the complexity of events and the motivations of the participants. 'The picture of the capitalists as men with gold in their hands, brass in their tongues, contempt in their faces, and treachery in their hearts', he noted, Is as untrue as the picture of an Empire robbing a petty state of its independence out of envy for its wealth, or the picture of an ignorant and perverse old man leading his state into destruction rather than yield to a modern age.' I have tried to bear this admonition in mind. Alfred Milner, of course, was not solely responsible for bringing about a conflict that several others helped foment. Britain's Colonial Secretary, the duplicitous Joseph Chamberlain, ran him a close second, and there were firebrands in Kruger's ranks as well who were spoiling for a fight. Yet Alfred Milner wanted a war more than anyone else, and, as was the case with many men of superior intellect, he acted from what he believed were the highest motives. Like Chamberlain, he convinced himself that it was not only Anglo-Saxons who would profit from the Empire but the backward peoples of the world also - as the beneficiaries of being ruled by the greatest of all the governing races. The governed, it should be added, were generally less enthusiastic. Like his predecessor, Sir Bartle Frere, almost two decades earlier, Alfred Milner knew virtually nothing about South Africa before coming here, soon after the Jameson Raid. Although he learnt the rudiments of the Dutch language, he made no sustained effort to understand the feelings of Boer-Afrikaners, pursued results far too quickly and was prepared to use the necessary force to achieve them. As the historian of Empire, Piers Brendon, notes caustically, it was Milner's learning of Dutch (the written language of the Boers at that time) hat enabled him to misunderstand the Afrikaner position so comprehensively. Perhaps that was to be expected of a man who confessed, before leaving England, that he was incapable of understanding the arguments of anyone who questioned 'the desirability or possibility of Imperial unity'. Yet, as one of Britain's three great proconsuls of the late Victorian era (Cromer in Egypt and Curzon in India being the others), Milner s reputation cannot be circumscribed by his association with South Africa alone. [...]

This is an excerpt from Milner: Last of the Empire Builders, by Richard Steyn.

Title: Milner
Subtitle: Last of the Empire Builders
Author: Richard Steyn
Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers
Johannesburg, South Africa 2022
ISBN 9781776191789 / ISBN 978-1-77-619178-9
Softcover, 15 x 23 cm, 380 pages, several b/w images