Scholar, soldier and statesman Jan Christiaan Smuts did more than any other man to create the Union of South Africa. A shy, frail child, he graduated from England's Cambridge University with honors and returned home to lead the Boer forces against the British. At the war's end, he worked to bring Boer and British together into a strong nation. Head of South Africa's troops during World War I, he put forth his plan for a League of Nations at the war's end. Smuts became world-famous, but was exiled into political wilderness at home when he argued for fair play for South African blacks. Only with the outbreak of World War II did this indomitable man return to guide his nation through the darkest days of conflict, and be one of the architects of the United Nations. Today South Africa flourishes; but its racist policies show how far it most go to achieve the dream to which Smuts dedicated his life.

From the dust jacket