Filled with colorful characters, dramatic battles like Isandhlwana and Rorke's Drift, and an inexorable narrative momentum, this unsurpassed history details the sixty-year existence of the world's mightiest African empire—from its brutal formation and zenith under the military genius Shaka (1787–1828), through its inevitable collision with white expansionism, to its dissolution under Cetshwayo in the Zulu War of 1879.

Donald R. Morris, a graduate of Annapolis, served in the Navy and later in the CIA. In addition to two novels, he has written columns and articles for theHouston Post, Atlantic Monthly, American Heritage, Proceedings, and the Encyclopedia Britannica, among others. He lives in Houston, Texas, where he publishes the Donald R. Morris Newsletter.