The Secret Society. Cecil John Rhodes's Plan for a New World Order by Brown, Robin

(Cape Town: Penguin Books, 2015) 9781770229204. 8vo; original black boards, lettered in white on spine; dustwrapper; pp. x + 386, incl. index; plates. Earlier owner's name signed on front free endpaper; trace of spotting to top edge. Near-fine condition. "Cecil John Rhodes made a fortune from diamonds and gold, became prime minister of the Cape, and had a country named after him, but his ambitions were far greater than that. When he was still in his twenties, after a meeting with General Gordon of Khartoum, Rhodes set up a Secret Society with the aim of establishing a new world order. ... In The Secret Society, Robin Brown unpacks this astonishing and largely unknown history. He brings Rhodes, his companions and his successors to life by drawing from diaries and letters, and sheds new light on Rhodes's homosexuality. Ranging from the diamond mines of Kimberley to the halls of power in Westminster, and peopled with characters such as General Gordon, Leander Starr Jameson, W.T. Stead, Olive Schreiner, the Princess Radziwill, Joseph Chamberlain and David Lloyd George, this book is a page-turner that will make you see the world, both past and present, in a different light." .