The South African Story

by Ron McGregor

For more than forty years, Ron McGregor, tour guide and raconteur, has been entertaining – and educating – visitors to South Africa. His commentaries cover a wide range of topics, from the Dawn of Mankind to the Era of Nelson Mandela. And, at the end of each tour comes the inevitable request: “There is more to this country than I ever believed – is there a book you can recommend?”
There are books, of course, many of which are weighty indeed. Each addresses a particular subject, and contains far more detail than the average traveler would ever be able to digest. But, until now, there’s never been an easy read which has it all in the space of a single volume.
Written originally for visitors, it is also finding favor with local South Africans who are learning things about their own country that they didn't know they didn't know!
To enhance the reader’s experience, a number of informative maps and diagrams complement the text.
You may be a visitor, a local, or just someone wishing to know more about South Africa and how it came to be where it is today. The South African Story is a great place to start.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

443 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 15, 2013

Reviews

[Bas Kreuger · Rating 5 out of 5]

McGregor has a way with writing: pleasing, with a nice flow, mixing interesting facts and figures with stories of the people living and working n the country. Mixing history with nature and economy in a very entertaining way, the South Africa Story is THE perfect book to read when you are planning to visit South Africa (as I plan to do in august 2014).
I continually switched to Wikipedia to read up some more on what Ron has written in a certain chapter and have ordered books like "Commando!" by Deneys Reitz to further my reading.
Did I miss something? Not much if any, a bit on the favorite sports and leisure of South Africans, on culture, museums and theater maybe and what I would love to hear is on South African humor, if that has a special twist to it (mixing Afrikaner, English and black culture). Pieter Dirk Uys is even in Holland a well known name.

[Christine Muller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book and gave me a good overview of my favourite country and the country I grew up in. I found it especially interesting to learn about the birth of Afrikaans!
I do wonder why he never said anything about how all the Indians landed up in Durban though!

[Alex Mallet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting set of vignettes about various aspects of the history of South Africa.