Ian Douglas Smith (1919–2007)

In Bitter Harvest, Smith meticulously tells the other side of Zimbabwe/Rhodesia's struggle for independence. He seeks to explain the reasons why his government declared its Unilateral Declaration of Independence, and how Rhodesia coped in the face of sanctions and terrorism until the pressures forced him and his government to accede to the wishes of his adversaries.

By no means unbiased, Smith's memoirs are however important in understanding the modern history of Zimbabwe and does shed some positive light on the pre-Mugabe times, counteracting some of the biases in Western media.

No matter in history is purely black and white: Bitter Harvest demonstrates this perfectly and in reading this, one appreciates historical matters are always more complex.… (more)