History of South Africa: From 1902 to the Present

by Thula Simpson

South Africa was born in war, has been cursed by crises and ruptures, and today stands on a precipice once again. This book explores the country's tumultuous journey from the Second Anglo-Boer War to 2021. Drawing on diaries, letters, oral testimony and diplomatic reports, Thula Simpson
follows the South African people through the battles, elections, repression, resistance, strikes, insurrections, massacres, crashes and epidemics that have shaped the nation.

Tracking South Africa's path from colony to Union and from apartheid to democracy, Simpson documents the influence of key figures including Jan Smuts, Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko, P.W. Botha, Thabo Mbeki and Cyril Ramaphosa. He offers detailed accounts of watershed events like the 1922 Rand Revolt,
the Defiance Campaign, Sharpeville, the Soweto uprising and the Marikana massacre. He sheds light on the roles of Gandhi, Churchill, Castro and Thatcher, and explores the impact of the World Wars, the armed struggle and the Border War. Simpson's history charts the post-apartheid transition and the
phases of ANC rule, from Rainbow Nation to transformation; state capture to 'New Dawn'. Along the way, it reveals the divisions and solidarities of sport; the nation's economic travails; and painful pandemics, from the Spanish flu to AIDS and Covid-19.

Genres: History, Africa, Nonfiction, South Africa, Historical

632 pages, Hardcover

Published October 1, 2022

Reviews

[Khanya Cakata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simpson offers an altogether page turning account of the complicated recent history of South Africa with a simultaneous clinically academically referenced precision and a rich story telling narrative. Chapter after chapter he lays out the facts while painting useful anecdotes that challenges the reader to questions his/her own understanding for why South Africa is what and were it is. This is a deeply impressive piece of work, timely and should be in anyone’s personal library who purports to be interested in knowledge and history.

[Caitlin McGregor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr Simpson was my history professor last year. He writes the same way he lectures - brilliantly.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent review of the history of South Africa from 1902 onwards, a topic that is neither easy or straightforward to discuss.

[Francesco · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a while to go through this brilliant scholarly work on the history of South Africa from the final moments of the Boer wars in 1902 to the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2022. Not because it is not engaging, rather because of its length and richness in details. But, motivated by a few visits to the country in the last months, I managed to get through. The focus is very much on politics and the contentious political environments that shaped South Africa until the present. Less is said about the economic and cultural history of the country. An emerging theme, among many, is the political brutality and fractious politics of the country, which has not found an end with the end of apartheid. Violence and brutality among competing political factions, labor strikes, corruption, failing governance persevere across the recent decades casting a heavy shadow on the future of the country.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite its title, this is largely a political history of South Africa. There’s little material on how the country’s economy, culture or demographics have changed, for instance.

I found the book interesting but heavy going. Simpson provides considerable detail on political developments, especially following the imposition of apartheid. This was useful, but often lacked context due to the limited discussion of other aspects of South African history. The book ends very abruptly halfway through a discussion of the Covid pandemic - a concluding chapter discussing trends in South African history would have been very helpful.

[Jbondandrews]

DNF
I had found this book on the Guardian and I wanted to enjoy it but I did not find it engaging. The author seemed to want to present the history of South Africa without any background information or to seriously delve into the personalities of the people in this book.