Book excerpt: This is the first full study of an African country during the Second World War. Unusually, it provides both an Africanist and an imperial perspective. Using extensive archival and oral evidence, Ashley Jackson explores the social, economic, political, agricultural, and military history ofBotswana. He examines Botswana's military contribution to the war effort and the impact of the war on the African home front. The book focuses on events and personalities `on the ground' in Africa and also on their interaction with and impact upon events and personalities in distant imperialcentres, such as Whitehall and the wartime British Army headquarters in the Middle East. The attitudes, aims, and actions of all levels of colonial society - British rulers, African chiefs, military officials, ordinary African men and women - are considered, producing a `total history' of an Africancountry at war.