Apartheid, 1948-1994 (Oxford Histories) - Softcover

This work is a first-rate, clearly written account of a bizarre 20th century political experiment. (Alexander du Toit, Times Higher Education)

As a lecturer on modern South African history, I will find this book extremely valuable. It provides a strong, textured historical narrative and simultaneously engages critically in key conceptual debates. It is impressively up-to-date and draws on an immensely wide range of literature, much of which is helpfully laid out in a bibliographical annexure ... the book stands in any context as an important work of synthesis with a coherent, and sometimes controversial, set of arguments. (Clive Glaser, South African Historical Journal)

Dubow's history emphasizes ideas and contexts, from global realities like the Cold War to philosophical, theological, and theoretical debates. It is a superb, easily readable, book that offers a comprehensive historical overview and nuanced analysis. (Fran Buntman, American Historical Review)

Apartheid 19481994 is relevant for a broad audience. (Melanie Boehi, H-Soz-Kult)

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 refamiliarises and defamiliarise 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.