The Rise, Fall, and Legacy of Apartheid

by P. Eric Louw

In this accessible narrative, Louw effectively tells the story of 20th-century South Africa by examining three political British Hegemony (1900-1948), the Afrikaner Nationalist Period (1948-1993), and the post-1994 Black Nationalist Period. He argues that apartheid was premised upon the notion of political partition and not white supremacy. Apartheid was a political strategy, constructed by the ethnic minority in order to prevent them from becoming politically powerless. Unfortunately the partition plan failed, causing an era of pain for South Africa.

With apartheid now formally over, Louw presents a comprehensive overview of this important 20th-century phenomenon. Topics covered the roots and causes of apartheid; what was apartheid; the struggle against apartheid; why did Afrikaner Nationalists negotiate their own demise in the 1990s; and the impact of apartheid in contemporary South Africa.

Genres: History, South Africa

280 pages, Hardcover

First published December 30, 2004

Reviews

[Mark Eickhoff]

Very readable and well-organized. The book presents both the vision of what apartheid was intended to accomplish when it was established in 1948 and outlines why it deservedly failed by 1994. There was an intellectual method to the madness and this book is ultimately a cautionary tale for anyone who thinks that government power should be used for social engineering of an entire society.