A History of South Africa

In this excellent history of South Africa, Professor Leonard Thompson of Yale University, gives the reader a truly holistic history of South Africa. Instead of beginning the history of South Africa with the arrival of the European explorers, he begins with the information that archaeologist have gained on the earliest humans in the area. Then, he follows the evolution of the area, showing how history unfolded for all of its people, especially the black South Africans who always did make up a majority of the inhabitants of the region. Overall, I found this to be a fascinating, and highly informative book. So many of the older books focus exclusively on the white South Africans, bringing in the rest only when they become "important" to the story of the whites. And, so many more recent publications present recent South African history in a triumphalist manner, as if utopia has finally been achieved. Instead, this book eschews both of those fallacies, and looks at South African history with a clear-eyed and open-minded fashion, giving the reader a good idea of what has really happened. I must say that I think that this is the best South African history that I have read so far. So, if you want to really know about South Africa, I would recommend that you get this great book. I give it two thumbs up!

2000 was a rough year for publishing a history of South Africa, even one as superbly written and brilliantly researched as Leonard Thompson's far too blandly titled A HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA. So much hung still in the balance, a precarious circumstance so potent that it reduced Thompson to this final, modest sentence: 'Nothing is preordained in human history. In 2000 it was still conceivable that the dreams of Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, and millions of other South Africans would eventually, in some fashion, triumph.' Indeed. Six years later, this reviewer has had opportunity to observe the astonishing steps the South African people have taken towards establishing a multiracial civil society. Although immense challenges remain, Mandela, Mbeki, and even a more sympathetically reviewed de Klerk can rightly be seen as the protagonists - though hardly of equal stature - in one of modern history's great human dramas. Leonard Thompson has proven himself equal to the task of chronicling all of South Africa's known historical periods with a lucidity that has well served its subject matter. Rarely does history go down so easily and hungrily as do Thompson's 358 lovingly written pages. The six years since its publication have been so full that one longs for another volume from Thompson's angle, hopefully more confident that that victory that remains so undetermined in human history can - from time to time and in the most longsuffering places - be achieved. Thompson celebrating the South African people's realization of the secularly sainted elder Mandela's vision, say, ten years from 2006. Now *there's* a sequel worth pre-ordering. In the meantime, it would be difficult to find a single volume so blessed of an historian's virtues as the one Thompson has given us.

The history of South Africa is mostly one of violence, starting from the earliest beginning when the Europeans came from Portugal, England and Holland. The Dutch set up a fort in Cape Town from which European settlement of the southern part of Africa. Settlement? Not really, Thompson (who was white) calls the settlers invaders; people who had no higher right to be there. It is certainly not a history of white South Africa, the book starts a lot earlier than that. It is also not in any way making one group into heroes, an astonishing feat. He is fair and critical, also about the new ANC governments after Apartheid, although he does see that 8 years is not long enough to complete change a nation. Highly recommended for classes, universities and everyone else interesting in South African history. It's the perfect way to write a general history.

This book contains numerous maps that show the various tribes in relationship to current events across the time span of events surrounding imperialist expansion into South Africa. I loved it for this reason alone. A reader learns something about the people and ethnic cultures -- Zulu, Khoisan, Ndbele, Afrikaaner, English, Asian, Indian, among others that make up this interesting, dynamic country. It provides context for current events -- Mandela and Mgabe as presidents and the transitional government leading out of apartheid. It explains the many problems that apartheid created and some of the economic issues. It even touches on the heartbreaking reality of AIDS.

"I did not think it was possible for a white person to write a history of South Africa which a black South African would find to be a fair and accurate account of a beautiful land and its people. Leonard Thompson has disabused me of that notion. His is a history that is both accurate and authentic, written in a delightful literary style." -- Archbishop Desmond TutuThis truly is an incredible historical masterpiece. The account begins with two chapters dedicated to the early Africans before European intervention, and ends with the fall of apartheid and a new beginning for South Africa. It is a easy to read, and is a real page-turner.The reason I picked this book up was I wanted to dig beneath the surface of the country's history. I learned about the two Afrikaner Republics - The Orange Free State, and the Transvaal Republic - and how they were incorporated, reluctantly, into the Union of South Africa at the beginning of the 20th century. The detail is incredible, and not boring in the least.I highly recommend this book - especially for those who need to do research reports on apartheid, or South African history in general. Overall - and excellent, excellent history book!