TIlE FORTS OF THE LIESBEECK FRONTIER

Abstract

This is the second of a new, attractive series of booklets dealing with Cape military history and published by the Castle Military Museum, Cape Town. Published in A5 landscape format, this series has tremendous potential as an educator: they are informative, reasonably cheap, and relatively accessible in terms of language. The first number in the series, T.D. Potgieter's The First British Occupation of the Cape (1995), set a standard of which the second number falls short. Dan Sleigh's Forts of the Liesbeeck Frontier, although a précis of a master's dissertation, does not have the same pithiness and depth. It lacks the collection of selected documents which gave added substance to The First British Occupation: a technique well-used by the "Seminar Studies in History" series. Document work is now in vogue, allowing analysis and assessment in combination with a text; and the departure of the Castle Military Museum series from this pattern, is truly a pity. The decision should be reviewed.