Provides a vivid history of a middle-sized South African town in the years when segregation gradually emerged, preceding the rapid and rigorous implementation of apartheid. Although the author was born and raised in Cradock, he avoids sentimentality and offers an ambitious treatment of the racial themes that dominate recent South African history through the details of one emblematic community.
FORMAT Hardcover LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand NewCradock, the product of more than twenty years of research by Jeffrey Butler, is a vivid history of a middle-sized South African town in the years when segregation gradually emerged, preceding the rapid and rigorous implementation of apartheid. Although Butler was born and raised in Cradock, he avoids sentimentality and offers an ambitious treatment of the racial themes that dominate recent South African history through the details of one emblematic community. Augmenting the obvious political narrative, Cradock examines poor infrastructural conditions that typify a grossly unequal system of racial segregation but otherwise neglected in the region's historiography. Butler shows, with the richness that only a local study could provide, how the lives of blacks, whites, and mixed-race coloureds were affected by the bitter transition from segregation before 1948 to apartheid thereafter.
The late Jeffrey Butler, Professor of History Emeritus at Wesleyan University and esteemed historian of southern Africa, was the author of The Liberal Party and the Jameson Raid.
Richard Elphick is Professor of History at Wesleyan University.
The late Jeannette Hopkins was Director of the Wesleyan University Press.
"A fine microstudy of South Africa's transition from segregation to apartheid, this detailed case study of what happened in one small town throws important light on the trajectory of the country as a whole."--Chris Saunders, University of Cape Town, author of The Making of the South African Past: Historians on Race and Class
"This elegantly written volume provides much food for thought. Above all, its detail and the depth of the research gives us fresh insights into the importance of local history, for this careful study makes us recognise that close observation may lead us to modify our generalizations."-- "Bulletin of the National Library of South Africa"
[T]his elegantly written volume provides much food for thought. Above all, its detail and the depth of the research gives us fresh insights into the importance of local history, for this careful study makes us recognise that close observation may lead us to modify our generalisations.-- "Bulletin of the National Library of South Africa"
The struggle for power in twentieth-century South Africa has most often been told as a struggle between the black and white populations and of their competing visions for the future. But alongside this struggle was a struggle between the center and the periphery, and a competition for control over local resources in the here and now. By plotting Cradock's history along both these axes, Butler has produced a text rich in insight and with conclusions on the changing dynamics of state power that extend far beyond this small locale.-- "African Studies Quarterly"
Cradock, the product of more than twenty years of research by Jeffrey Butler, is a vivid history of a middle-sized South African town in the years when segregation gradually emerged, preceding the rapid and rigorous implementation of apartheid. Although Butler was born and raised in Cradock, he avoids sentimentality and offers an ambitious treatment of the racial themes that dominate recent South African history through the details of one emblematic community. Augmenting the obvious political narrative, Cradock examines poor infrastructural conditions that typify a grossly unequal system of racial segregation but otherwise neglected in the region's historiography. Butler shows, with the richness that only a local study could provide, how the lives of blacks, whites, and mixed-race coloreds were affected by the bitter transition from segregation before 1948 to apartheid thereafter.
" "A fine microstudy of South Africa's transition from segregation to apartheid, this detailed case study of what happened in one small town throws important light on the trajectory of the country as a whole." "--Chris Saunders, University of Cape Town; author of The Making of the South African Past: Historians on Race and Class
"This elegantly written volume provides much food for thought. Above all, its detail and the depth of the research gives us fresh insights into the importance of local history, for this careful study makes us recognise that close observation may lead us to modify our generalizations."
The late Jeffrey Butler, Professor of History Emeritus at Wesleyan University and esteemed historian of southern Africa, was the author of The Liberal Party and the Jameson Raid. Richard Elphick is Professor of History at Wesleyan University. The late Jeannette Hopkins was Director of the Wesleyan University Press.
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