Includes bibliographical references (pages 629-631) and index.

Introduction -- 1. Roots -- 2. Storm clouds gather: 1957-1965 -- 3. Phoney precursor to war: 1965-1970 -- 4. The calm before the storm: 1970-1975 -- 5. Peace is over and done: 1975 and 1976 -- 6. All out war: September 1976 -- February 1978 -- 7. Devil's madness: 1978-1980 -- 8. Transitions: April 1980 -1983 -- 9. Gukuramundi: January 1983 -- July 1984 -- 10. "You'll be seeing fire": the annihilation of ZAPU: July 1984 -1987 -- 11. A de facto one-party state and all its trappings: 1988-1990 -- 12. True peace?: April 1990-February 1994 -- 13. Breaking the silence: 1994-1997 -- 14. Prelude to mayhem: 1997-1999 -- 15. Strike fear into their hearts: the 2000 referendum and election -- 16. Parliamentary battleground: July 2000 -- February 2001 -- 17. Terrorists and "terrorists": March 2001 -- December 2001 -- 18. The 2002 Presidential election and its aftermath: January-June 2002 -- 19. Treason and other nefarious activities: July 2002 -- March 2003 -- 20. Underground: a triumph of courage over fear: March 2003-December 2003 -- 21. "Contempt of Parliament": January 2004 -- March 2005 -- 22. The MDC falls apart: April 2005-June 2006 -- 23. A hellhole in the wilderness: June 2006 -- January 2008 -- 24. Say not the struggle naught availeth: Jabnuary 2008-February 2009 -- 25. Drawing back from the brink: February 2009 -- May 2010 -- 26. Reaching out: May 2010 -- August 2011 -- 27. Towards a new constitution: the end of the beginning: August 2011- March 2013 -- 28. Back to the future: March 2013 -- December 2014 -- 29. Endurance inspired by hope: 2015 ... and beyond.

"This is an authoritative work, spanning the last 60 years of Zimbabwe's history, told from the unique perspective of a first-hand witnesss. Reflecting his career initially as a human rights lawyer in Bulawayo and later, from 2000, as a member of Parliament for the MDC opposition party, Coltart's personal narrative in compelling and his scope broad. ... Coltart throws new light on the shaping and undoing of a country, from the obstinate racism of Ian Smith that provoked Rhodesia's UDI from Britain in 1965, the civil war of the 1970s which brought independence and hopeful democracy to a scarred nation, the Gukurahundi genocide of the 1980s and the terror of the Fifth Brigade, to Mugabe's war on white farmers and the urban poor, and seemingly unshakeable grip on power."--Back cover.