The River War: An Account of the Reconquest of the Sudan (ISBN 0486447855)

Warning!! No maps included in this edition:
Warning!!! Don't buy the edition of 'The River War' published by Wildside Press (ISBN 1592246109). It has NO MAPS OF ANY KIND. NONE. This book is primarily a description of a military campaigns, and large parts of the text, including almost all of the discussion of strategy and tactics, are almost incomprehensible without a map. Unless you already know where Korti and Metemma are, not to mention Suakin, Korosko, and Abu Hamed, get another edition.

honesty vs loyalty?:
Winston Churchill had the opportunity to say many things and one of them was "I have not become the Queen's first minister in order to preside over the dissolution of the British Empire". Or was it the "... the King's first minister..."? I don't recall whether it was his first or second term as Prime Minister. In any case, history recalls WSC as a Imperialist in the grand tradition with all the baggage that may entail. However, before we join in that celebration or condemnation, let us read carefully some passages from The River War. First we read "What enterprise that an enlightened community may attempt is more noble and more profitable than the reclamation from barbarism of fertile regions and large populations? To give peace to warring tribes, to administer justice where all was violence.....etc,etc" All very conventional late 19th stuff believed by the great majority of Europeans and North Americans of the time. But a few sentances later we find "Yet as the mind turns from the wonderful clouldland of aspirations to the ugly scaffolding of attempt and achievement, a succession of opposite ideas arises." Churchill then goes on to detail the struggle of those "tenacious of liberty" who oppose the imperial task and the "greedy trader","inopportune missionary","ambitious soldier" and "lying speculator" who dishonor the enterprise. Then he he says "...it hardly seems possible for us to believe that any fair prospsect is approached by so foul a path". Much later in the book as WSC is describing the aftermath of the Battle of Omdurman and the flight of the Khalifa Abdullah. He points out that Abdullah flees after the defeat of his army alone and unarmed and joins the remnants of his army and "...found many disheartened friends; but the fact that, in this evil plight, he found any friends at all must be recorded in his favor and in that of his subjects." He goes on to point out that this "tyrant, oppressor,...scourge...embodiment, as he has been depicted to European eyes, of all the vices; the object, as he was believed in England, of his people's bitter hatred, found safety and welcome among his flying soldiers." I am not ripping these statements from context. Churchill repeatedly pays tribute to the courage of his enemies, who indeed at one climactic moment were trying their personal best to turn his body into chopped meat, and clearly, as other reviewers have pointed out, gives tribute to Krupp, Maxim, Nordenfelt, Lee, Metford, Martini and Henry and their like contributers to the Machine Age civilization that enabled the reconquest of the Sudan. He never attributes any other motives to his Arab enemies than rational calculation of self interest, planning and thoughfulness, no condescension of uknowable savage impulses or fanatical behaviour, though great willingness to fight and die. So where does this leave us? Winston Churchill was both a young man of his class and time and also possessor of some level of moral honesty that was with him at an early age. That made him tell the truth about what he saw. In June 1940, that individual moral honesty was all that prevented a long lasting German National Socialist State from taking root in Europe with incalculable consequences. It is well to ponder all this as we read The River War. As other reviewers have pointed out, the stage of violence at the end of the 19th century is a stage of violence at the beginning of the 21st century. The facts and nature of war among human beings stays the same along with our inability to avoid it. Let us at least be with Winston Spencer Churchill in being honest about it. Q

AVOID THE KINDLE EDITION! Formatting problems...:
I was really looking forward to reading this book! I've read Churchill's later works, and I'd read in other books that his reports from the Sudan helped make his career. However, the Kindle Edition is poorly formatted. It suffers from the same problem as many other cheap Kindle books: bad line feeds. This means lines get very chopped up, and no matter what text size you use, the lines don't line up on the page. Sounds minor perhaps, but I found it impossible to read. So find yourself a print copy!

Whirling Dervishes:
Winston Churchill was a man of many talents. Among those that would serve him well, throughout his life, was the ability to observe and write. His recounting of the reconquest of the Sudan still stands today as a thrilling adventure on all fronts. As a young man he was with Kitchener and the fight at the battle of Omdurman in the Sudan. Originally spanning two volumes, this Dover Publication is a republication of the revised second edition, published in 1902, condensed into one volume. Churchill had re-edited his work toning down some of his early criticism of Kitchener. This recounting of his would certainly fall into the realm of a cautionary tale and one that, during today's time of Iraq conflict, deserves to be carefully studied. As a young writer he was able to balance a fairly unprejudiced account of a war that was "the most signal triumph ever gained by the arms of science over barbarians. Within the space of five hours the strongest and best-armed savage army yet arrayed against a modern European Power had been destroyed and dispersed, with hardly any difficulty, comparatively small risk, and insignificant loss to the victors." Most of the losses the victors sustained would come from having to fight in close quarters face to face and hand to hand. Churchill explores battle logistic and supply with the moving of gunboats down the Nile Cataracts and the building of the Railway line into the desert. He take us along with the 21st Lancers as they commit to their first cavalry charge in the war. Here is heart stopping action at its' finest as "stubborn and unshaken infantry..meet stubborn and unshaken cavalry." Churchill isn't without his criticisms of the British Army and the civilian casualties at Omdurman. He considered the destroyed army under General Hicks to be "perhaps the worse army that has ever marched to war". He looks upon General Gordon's ill-fated mission as one that was "embarked in high spirits, sustained by that belief in personality which too often misleads great men and beautiful women". Most of the time Kitchener is shown as a distant and dispassionate commander "nursing his gunboats, maturing his plans and waiting..to complete the downfall of his foes". This is an excellent read with a lot of parallels that apply to today's military involvements. Here is the British army helping Egypt regain the Sudan and the control of the Nile by removing the Mahdi (the guided one) and his successor the Khalifa, destroy his Dervish army, and retaining Britain's sphere of influence in Africa. It is amazing how history often repeats itself in many different ways. Well worth adding to the history shelf.

River War:
"The River War" is recent reprint of Winston Churchill's 1899 book. Much of the action takes place near the Darfur region which is very much in today's news. The value of the book, besides entertainment, is the insight it gives into major power statesmanship, and military tactics. The 2007 reader is left with the realization that only the technology changes and that the British were much more efficient that we are. Churchill is an excellent writer. In fact, I wished I could tell him "If this Prime Minister thing doesn't work out, you can always go back to writing." But, of course, that is exactly what he did do after losing the post war election. Roger Neiswander