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Historiography of Selected Works on Cecil John Rhodes (1853–1902)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 May 2014

Richard A. McFarlane
Richard A. McFarlane*
Affiliation:
Orange, California
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Extract

The historiography of Cecil John Rhodes may be divided into two broad categories: chauvinistic approval or utter vilification. In the Introduction to Colossus of Southern Africa, Lockhart and Woodhouse wrote: “Those who hated [Rhodes] most were those who knew him least, and those most admired and loved him were those who knew him best.” The earlier works written soon after Rhodes death, and usually by his “intima[te]” friends, constitute the first group. Later works written by historians and journalists largely constitute the second group. Generally speaking, the category into which a particular biography or history is placed has a strong correlation to the time it was written. Chronologically, these two groups divide at about 1945, when the last of Rhodes's intimate companions died and the British Empire was beginning to be dismantled.

The earliest published biography of Cecil Rhodes was Cecil Rhodes: His Political Life and Speeches, 1881-1900 published just two years before his death. The work was published pseudonymously under the moniker “Vindex.” C.M. Woodhouse, in the “Notes on Sources” at the front of his book on Rhodes, identified Vindex as the Reverend F. Vershoyle.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 34 , 2007 , pp. 437 - 446
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2007

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References

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