Apartheid, 1948-1994

by Saul Dubow

This new study offers a fresh interpretation of apartheid South Africa. Emerging out of the author's long-standing interests in the history of racial segregation, and drawing on a great deal of new scholarship, archival collections, and personal memoirs, he situates apartheid in global as well as local contexts. The overall conception of Apartheid, 1948-1994 is to integrate studies of resistance with the analysis of power, paying attention to the importance of ideas, institutions, and culture.
Saul Dubow refamiliarizes and defamiliarizes apartheid so as to approach South Africa's white supremacist past from unlikely perspectives. He asks not only why apartheid was defeated, but how it survived so long. He neither presumes the rise of apartheid nor its demise. This synoptic reinterpretation is designed to introduce students to apartheid and to generate new questions for experts in the field.

Genres: History, Africa, South Africa, Nonfiction

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Clayton]

Read over the semester for class. Had my brain on fire after every chapter. Very well-written and informative. Apartheid is a common buzz word in politics today, but now I feel like I understand what the word means and when to use it. Essential reading for anyone interested in South African history.

[Victoria Schreiber · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5 ⭐️

A very factual account (with a bit of an historic essay at the end) of Apartheid in South Africa.

[sube · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book seeks to give an overview of the rise, peak and fall of apartheid -- it discusses the two first periods at length, looking at international and national politics, as well as the deeper causal mechanisms of it as well as its effects at deeper length. The discussion of its fall felt less analytical, I felt, and mostly a reurgitating of facts. Nonetheless, I fould it an useful introduction to the history of apartheid.

[Gordon Eldridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book in order to increase my knowledge of apartheid in preparation for teaching a high school class on social justice with apartheid as the primary case study. I also read a number of other books on the subject toward this end. Dubow's account was by far the most insightful of all the accounts I read. He presents an excellent balance of evidence from multiple perspectives. His style is clear and concise and so readable that you don't want to put the book down. While focusing on the most important events, Dubow also brings in evidence neglected by other authors I read. For example, he discusses the role played by music, art, literature and photography in the battle against the apartheid regime. His extensive survey of evidence allows a nuanced picture to emerge of cause and effect as related to how apartheid came about, to how it was possible for it to last so long and to how it was able eventually to be defeated. The closing chapter, where he steps back from the chronological survey to present the broad themes of apartheid and how the connections between them, is a masterpiece of historical analysis. I highly recommend this book to anybody interested in apartheid or in battles for social justice more broadly.

[Jako Abrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative.