Roger B. Beck

Children of bondage : a social history of the slave society at the Cape of Good Hope, 1652-1838

The Dutch East India Companys introduction of slaves into the Cape of Good Hope in 1653 established an institution, the social and political reverberations of which are still felt today. This is the story of the social, cultural and biological progeny of that first slave society.

Status and Respectability in the Cape Colony, 1750–1870: Ross, Robert: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 203 pp., Publication Date: August 1999

children, as their farmsteads were bumed and they were herded into camps for their own welfare. The war ended in 1902. The Boer leadership took heed, and by 1909 the Union of South Africa had become a British dominion. Nasson tells the story well, including exchanges between London and Cape Town, as well as Boer diplomatic attempts to obtain foreign support. The South African War has several uses. First, readers should look at the parallels with the fate of the Confederacy in America. Second, they should wonder why the offensive spirit and philosophy lasted into the Great War, especially in the RFC/RAF under the Boer veteran MG Hugh Trenchard. Third, reading the book suggests comparisons with Vietnam, though spatially the latter was much smaller. And lastly, thoughtful persons might liken what happened in South Africa to the present problems of peacekeeping in places such as Kosovo, because power, humans, and logistics remain as constants.

Bibles and Beads: Missionaries as Traders in Southern Africa in the Early Nineteenth Century

Trade across the Cape frontier in the first three decades of the nineteenth century, and government attempts to regulate that trade, cannot be understood without first considering the role of Protestant missionaries as traders and bearers of European manufactured goods in the South African interior. From their arrival in 1799, missionaries of the London Missionary Society carried on a daily trade beyond the northern and eastern boundaries of the Cape Colony that was forbidden by law to the colonists. When missionaries of the Methodist Missionary Society arrived in the mid-1810s they too carried beads as well as Bibles to their mission stations outside the colony. Most missionaries were initially troubled by having to mix commercial activities with their religious duties. They were forced, however, to rely on trade in order to support themselves and their families because of the meagre material and monetary assistance they received from their societies. They introduced European goods among African societies beyond the Cape frontiers earlier and in greater quantities than any other enterprise until the commencement of the Fort Willshire fairs in 1824. Most importantly, they helped to bring about a transition from trade in beads, buttons and other traditional exchange items to a desire among many of the peoples with whom they came into contact for blankets, European clothing and metal tools and utensils, thus creating a growing dependency on European material goods that would eventually bring about a total transformation of these African societies.

A History of South Africa

To quote the title of Nelson Mandelas 1994 autobiography, it has been a long walk to freedom. The history of South Africa, one of the oldest inhabited places on earth, is also the story of one of the newest nations, made and remade over the last century. This compellingly written history of South Africa, from prehistoric times through 1999, is the only up-to-date history of the nation. Beginning with an overview of the modern nation, this narrative history traces South Africa from prehistory through the European invasions, the settlement by Dutch, the imposition of British rule, the many internecine wars for control of the nation, the institution of apartheid, and, finally, freedom for all South Africans in 1994 and the Mandela years 1994-1999. Twin themes of colonial rule and racism intertwine over the course of the last three hundred and fifty years. Beck, a specialist in the history of South Africa, illuminates the conflicts, personalities, and tragedies of South African history over this period, culminating in the end of apartheid in 1994, the release from prison of Nelson Mandela, and his formation of a new government. Brief sketches of key people in the history of South Africa, a glossary of terms, maps, and a bibliographic essay of suggested reading complete the work. Every library should update its resources on South Africa with this engagingly written and authoritative history.

African Connections: Archaeological Perspectives on Africa and the Wider World: Mitchell, Peter: Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira, 328 pp., Publication Date: January 2005

The dynamic of competing nationalisms struggling to cultivate popular support for either a state or regional identity is the central focus of Nationalist Voices in Jordan. Its author, Betty S . Anderson, an assistant professor of Middle East and world history at Boston University, contends that in that contest, the Jordanian experience was quite unique as the country’s artificial state structure, largely a colonial construct erected around the Hashemite dynasty, managed to defeat and co-opt the challenges of those who questioned its legitimacy. During the 195Os, a coalition of political parties, known as the Jordanian National Movement (JNM), called for greater popular participation in determining domestic policies and in fostering regional unity based on Arab nationalism. Led by the urban intelligentsia, in large part a product of the emerging modem state, and bolstered by the professional classes of the newly incorporated West Bank, the movement was the culmination of a political and ideological development that was years in the making. Anderson argues that the coalition represented a serious challenge to the Hashemite state, as the nationalist party leaders and activists mobilized the citizenry, particularly in the cities, to protest government policies and the level of British influence in Jordan. In response, King Husayn felt pressured to liberalize the political process and allow the opposition to form a government. That decision, to obligate the nationalists to assume the reins of power and be responsible for promulgating effective policies, somewhat eased the pressure mounting on the Hashemite establishment. The opposition, on the other hand, faltered once it achieved the coveted control of the government as the JNM gradually splintered under factional fighting and ideological disputes. Anderson attributes the failure of the nationalist coalition in large measure to its lack of sustained unity in the face of an entrenched Hashimite state. Jordan avoided abrupt and radical change, unlike many other countries in the region, because “the regime supplied the services the people wanted and a national story giving it the legitimacy to do so, not to mention the fact that its intelligence organization grew competent enough to uncover antagonistic plots” (194). Through a nuanced use of soft and hard power, mixing gradual reform, government employment, and social services with a sizable security apparatus, namely the army, the Hashemite dynasty retained sufficient support to weather the JNM challenge and manage the pace and scope of domestic changes. Nationalist Voices provides a clear yet thorough analysis of the contentious efforts to define and spread regional nationalism across the Arab world. With its focus on events in Jordan, the book, written for a mostly academic audience, constitutes an in depth countrystudy of the political struggle in which a regime and its opponents competed for the right to define Arab nationalism.

The Afrikaners: Biography of a People: Giliomee, Hermann: Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press 697 pp., Publication Date: September 2003

and the countryside, or modern and traditionid impulses. It proves a fascinating read with those additional elements. Pappe’s political views-in particular his critical interpretation of Israel’s recent policies toward the Palestinians-do not appear until the last few pages and the book does not suffer appreciably from their inclusion. Pappe provides a defense of his approach in his introduction, clearly designed to forestall potential argument from proponents of a more traditional narrative. The introduction is, however, not geared toward the students to whom the book is ostensibly addressed and could cause undergraduates to unfairly set this interesting work aside. As a deliberate attempt as a corrective to the standard modernization narrative, Pappe’s book is quite useful. His efforts to complicate the narrative by including details of the subaltern elements of Palestinian society, particularly that of the peasants, add a level of description that many general histories of the area lack. The chapters are structured clearly and well-written, and the book includes a detailed chronology iind glossaries of names and terms.

The View across the River: Harriette Colenso and the Zulu Struggle against Imperialism

Preface - Warring houses - The inheritance - Dividing the inheritance - The dispute - A sort of paradise - The quest - Breaking down - Endnotes - Bibliography

The Last Trek, a New Beginning: The Autobiography: De Klerk, F. W.: New York: St. Martin's, 432 pp., Publication Date: May 1999

ly expectant encouragement,” “giv[ing] him a general presumption that others should indulge his wishes” (84). “Without his entourage of women, he would not have risen to his historical eminence. There was, right to the last. something of the spoilt child about Lenin” (491). At the same time, Lenin and his siblings felt parcntitl pressure “to do well at school and gain formal qualifications”; such pressure resulted frc)m the snobbery experienced by his parents as new hereditary nobles (59). This pressure intensified after Lenin’s brother Alexander was executed for his role in a plot against Tsar Alexander 111’s life, which made the parenls “pariahs” (1 26). Service explains that Lenin’\ rejection “by the powers of old Russia” let1 him to a desire for revenge by making a revolution (126). Service might have gone i’urther by noting that the three pillars of the tsarist order were faith, the tsar, and the fatherland: Lenin repudiated the first, had the second killed, and embraced an ideology that iiiinimized the importance of the third. Service’\ focus throughout is on Lenin, and he leaves out details extraneous to Lenin’s life itself, such as the name of Lenin’s would-be assassin Fanya Kaplan (although he did discuss her in his trilogy) and specifics about the suppression of the Menshevik regime in Georgia (342). His treatment of political events is judicious, although he does whitewash Lenin’s denial of national rights to nonRussian peoples (490). There are occasional contradictions, as when he finds evidence of an actual atfair with Inessa Armand “circumstantial” ( I99), yet elsewhere states that “[hle cheated o n his wife [with Armand]” (493). Until now the best English-language biographies dated from the 1960s, namely Louis Fischer’s and the last edition of David Shub’s. Dnritri Volkogonov’s biography, well translated and edited by Harold Shukman in 1994, is a lw excellent. Nevertheless, despite lacking Fischer’s extensive coverage of such topics a x political events and Lenin’s views on literaturc and art, Service’s book, readable, up to date. ;ind with well-selected material, is now the he5