A History of South Africa: From the Distant Past to the Present Day, edited by Fransjohan Pretorius
Release Date: June 30, 2014
Publisher: Protea Boekhuis
[This book's] broad scope includes South Africa's pre-colonial history, slavery, Afrikaner nationalism, an environmental history and an analysis of a post-apartheid South Africa.
Some relevant questions are asked in this book. For example, Who were the first people in South Africa? And who came after them? How did their interaction help to form this country? Where do we stand as a nation today? Chapters include the Anglo-Boer War, the establishment of apartheid, a different view on apartheid and the democratic puberty. Two chapters are about the struggle against the Afrikaner and focus on the black resistance movement.
The [editor] said in a recent interview: "We did not try and justify apartheid, but one has to know what it was all about". Prof Hermann Giliomee also poses the question in his chapter: "Was apartheid all bad?"
This extensive history of South Africa was written by some of the country’s most prominent historians and is meant to put the complex history of South Africa into perspective.
The [editor] emphasizes that the book is an effort to understand people's behavior in the history of South Africa.
Fransjohan Pretorius, professor of history at the University of Pretoria, is author of
The A to Z of the Anglo-Boer War (2010),
Historical Dictionary of the Anglo-Boer War (2009), and
Life On Commando During The Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902 (1999), among other books. This edited volume includes chapters contributed by David Scher, Jan Visagie, Hermann Giliomee, and Jan-Jan Joubert.
South Africa came late to television; when it finally arrived in the late 1970s the rest of the world had already begun to shun the country because of apartheid. While the ruling National Party feared the integrative effects of television, they did not foresee how exclusion from globally unifying broadcasts would gradually erode their power. Throughout the apartheid-era South Africa was barred from participating in some of television's greatest global attractions, including sporting events such as the Olympics and contests such as Miss World. After apartheid, and with the release of Nelson Mandela from prison – itself one of the world's most memorable media events, came a proliferation of large-scale live broadcasts that attracted the admiration of the rest of the world. At the same time, the country was permitted to return to international competition. These events were pivotal in shaping and consolidating the country's emerging post-apartheid national identity. Broadcasting the End of Apartheid assesses the socio-political effect of live broadcasting on South Africa's transition to democracy. MJ Evans argues that just as print media had a powerful influence on the development of Afrikaner nationalism, so the 'liveness' of television helped to consolidate the 'newness' of the post-apartheid South African national identity.
