Kitchener: Architect of Victory, Artisan of Peace

xxii, 598 pp. 8vo. "He returned to London a hero in the autumn of 1898. The city went wild. He was Kitchener of Khartoum: victor of the Battle of Omdurman, destroyer of tyranny, avenger of the massacred General Gordon. Sir Herbert Kitchener had reconquered the Sudan and laid down principles that for sixty years made it one of the most humanely governed lands in the British Empire. Based on the Kitchener Papers and Royal Archives as well as contemporary manuscripts and private letters, this new biography records the military triumphs and peace of reconciliation Kitchener achieved in South Africa; his postings in India as commander in chief and Egypt as proconsul; the strategy that, despite Kitchener's death by enemy action in 1916, guided the Allies to victory in the Great War. Thoroughly researched, too, are the brutality, butchery, and homosexuality that have in recent times clouded Kitchener's reputation. What emerges beyond the iconic public figure who clashed with Lloyd George and Churchill is the man often capable of great compassion and humanitarian vision."