About the Author:
Hermann Giliomee, Professor of History at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, is the editor or author of thirteen books, including Negotiating South Africa's Future, Awkward Embrace: One-Party Domination and Democracy in Industrialising Countries, From Apartheid to Nation-Building, and The Shaping of South African Society. In 1984 he founded Die Suid-Afrikaan, an Afrikaans journal of opinion, and he has been a regular columnist for the Cape Times.
Review:
"A book to welcome-a history of the Afrikaners from the first European settlement to the present day written by a proud and even patriotic Afrikaner which is nevertheless critical in its approach and untainted by Afrikaner nationalism. It includes an account of the origins and demise of apartheid that must rank as the most sober, objective and comprehensive we have." -J.M. Coetzee "A strong historian at the peak of his powers ... Real historical truth always lies concealed in the thickets of contradiction, irony and paradox. To flush it from where it skulks amidst the shadows of competing interpretations of racially-based nationalisms requires truth-tellers rather than praise-singers; honest historians who tread with the greatest of care, with the sharpest of eyes, the keenest of hearing. For the genuinely curious - those who wish to see the species rather than the spectre - there can be no more experienced or honest guide than Hermann Giliomee." Charles van Onselen "The Afrikaners is all that we have come to expect from him: authoritative, original, well written and full of insights, many of them causing one to ponder not just the might-have-beens of South African history but the difficulties of democratic transition elsewhere in the world too. At a time when much writing about South Africa is either wishful, ideological or both - and when many intellectuals have decided to keep their heads well down, Giliomee is level-headed, independent minded and wholly unafraid to take on even the most difficult questions." R.W. Johnson'a magisterial new study.' -The Economist
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