Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence

60 years on from Rhodesia’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965, this book brings together many important themes to examine its consequences and offer the most comprehensive overview to date.

Situating the UDI in its local, regional, international and transnational context, this collection offers a range of historical approaches; political, economic, social, cultural, international and transnational, to provide a richer and deeper understanding of the emergence of contemporary Zimbabwe.

Based on an array of rich archival and oral history sources, this book brings together new ways of understanding the multiple and complex dimensions of Rhodesia’s UDI and highlights its importance to wider African and World history.

Hugh Pattenden is a Visiting Academic at the Centre for Imperial and Postcolonial Studies at the University of Southampton, an IHR Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research in the University of London, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. His research on UDI has appeared in a range of journals, including the International History Review, the Journal of Contemporary History, the Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, and War in History.

Carl P. Watts is an Associate Professor of National Security Studies at Air University, Global College of Professional Military Education, USA, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. His research on UDI has been published in many journals and he is also the author of Rhodesia’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence: An International History (2012).

Sue Onslow is a Visiting Professor in the Department of Political Economy at King’s College London, UK, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. A leading historian of Rhodesia’s UDI, she has published extensively on Southern Africa in the Cold War era including books and in journals such as Britain and the World, Cold War History, The South African Historical Journal, The Journal of Southern African Studies, The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs, and The International History Review.