South Africa’s pre-eminent historian explains the spectacular rise – and probable demise – of the numerical minority that dominated 20th-century South Africa.

The Afrikaners are unique in the world in that they successfully mobilised ethnic entrepreneurship without state assistance, controlled the entire country, and then yielded power without military defeat. Award-winning author Hermann Giliomee takes a hard analytical look at this group’s dramatic ascent and possible disappearance as a nation in a series of well-argued thematic chapters. Topics range from ethnic entrepreneurship, the ‘coloured vote’ and ‘Bantu’ education to Nelson Mandela’s relationship with the last Afrikaner leaders.

It ends with a final chapter on the most likely future for this sometimes admired, often reviled group, which undoubtedly left the largest imprint on South African history in the 20th century.

Internationally-renowned historian Hermann Giliomee has himself been intimately involved in the unfolding drama of South Africa’s history, as participant at the Dakar talks with the ANC, as outspoken commentator for the English press, and as leading thinker on the Afrikaners. Giliomee’s lucidity and original insights make this more than just his own story. It is also a gripping narrative, filled with anecdotes and revealing inner workings of the Afrikaner establishment.

Saam met die sterwe van die ou Suid-Afrika het ook “Afrikaner Volkskapitalisme” gesneuwel, wat veral gekenmerk is deur die einde van die eens magtige Sanlam en sy eweknie in die Noorde, Volkskas, wat eers deel van Rembrandt en toe later deel van Barclays van Brittanje geword het. Hierdie twee organisasies het vir dekades die dinamo van Afrikaner-sake aan die gang gehou.

Terwyl Afrikaner-kapitalisme oor die laaste dekade of wat byna krampagtig gesoek het na nuwe suurstof om te kan oorleef, is daar stil-stil ’n nuwe grondslag gelê vir ’n nuwe geslag Afrikaner-kapitaliste. Nuwe mijardêrs is orals geskep deur aandele-pryse wat ten hemele gejaag is en in die proses het dit in die jongste tyd begin lyk of van hierdie bate-spirale op baie dun ys gebou is en dalk ook groot sarsies bedrog.

Hierdie boek bespreek die huidige ekonomiese klimaat op ‘n interessante en toeganklike manier.

Dié nuwe, opgedateerde uitgawe van die topverkoper Nuwe geskiedenis van Suid-Afrika sluit bydraes in deur gerekende nuwe skrywers, wat die storie van ons land en mense reg tot op datum bring.

Onder redaksie van Bill Nasson word nuwe insigte uit die geskiedskrywing en die argeologie ingeweef. Die boek begin by die onstaan van die mensdom, vertel dan die storie van die Khoikhoi, slawe en burgers, die groot migrasies van die pre-koloniale tyd en later trekboere en Voortrekkers. Dan kom die ontdekking van diamante en goud wat die gang van die politiek radikaal verander. Oorlog breek uit in 1899; ook oorloë in 1914 en in 1939 in Europa laat plaaslik nuwe kragte vry. Die boek vertel van segregasie, politieke organisasie en verset, en uiteindelik die oorgang. Hierná val die soeklig op die demokratiese presidentskappe en die onverwagte en onvoorspelbare onlangse geskiedenis, wat staatskaping -- en beurtkrag -- insluit.

Met die nuutste inligting en invalshoeke word die volledige storie van Suid-Afrika en sy mense gesaghebbend dog leesbaar vertel.

Internasionaal-bekende historikus prof. Hermann Giliomee dek die geskiedenis van die Afrikaners in 'n hoogs leesbare narratief. Hy verken verskeie omstrede kwessies - die redes vir hul opgee van mag, pogings om saam met ander minderhede te veg vir die Grondwet, en hul soms stormagtige verhouding met die ANC en president Zuma.

Hermann Giliomee, top historian, is seen as the world expert on the history of the Afrikaners. This book presents the essence of his previous, longer academic work in readable language. Many controversial aspects of South Africa’s past and the role therein of the group of people who in time would refer to themselves as “Afrikaners” are told in colour and flavour in story form, leaving readers with a fresh, sometimes challenging perspective on our past .

The bestselling narrative history of a group often despised, but never before so well understood. Hermann Giliomee tells their dramatic and compelling story - of contradictory leanings towards freedom and oppression - in highly readable narrative. Revised and updated, this new edition includes a chapter on the often fraught relationship between Afrikaners and the ANC in power, with an analysis of why Afrikaners relinquished power so easily, and how they, along with other minorities, are increasingly resisting ANC efforts to undermine the Constitution. Giliomee also examines the wildly divergent reactions of Afrikaners to President Zuma and his attempts to woo them.

Hermann Giliomee, pre-eminent South African historian, dissects the forces that shaped the Afrikaners into an unusual ‘maverick African’ nation.

He analyses long-term forces like the powerful legal position of Afrikaner women, the expanding frontier, and the struggles about race inside the church, along with more recent political history.

This study questions conventional wisdom about the nature and outcome of the South African conflict. Avoiding both wishful thinkiong and mere moralizing, Heribert Adam and Hermann Giliomee critically examine the applicability of such concepts as colonialism, fascism, and class exploitation cherished by the Left, and the notion of pluralism and identity on the political Right. In contrast to the liberal focus, they find the roots of the South African predicament not in ideological racism or prejudiced Calvinism but in the entrenchment of Afrikaner power and privilege. The potent force was historically mobilized against both black competitors and imperial foreign capital. Adam and Giliomee analyze the political economy of ethnic patronage in the bureaucratic expansion of apartheid administration and state capitalism. They trace both the socio-historical background and the ideologies behind changing in-group perceptions. The mechanisms by which Afrikanerdom maintains its crucial unity are evaluated against the cleavages within a ruling oligarchy in crisis. Coercion proves increasingly insufficient against politicized victims of traditional domination.Therefore, the search for a new legitimacy through inter-ethnic alliances characterizes the internal debate on political alternatives. The authros explore the limits of such co-optation strategies and assess the preconditions for federalism in an all-out confrontation.

"The Afrikaners: Biography of A People, " the first comprehensive history of the Afrikaner people based on--and critical of--the most recent scholarly work, draws on the author's own research and interviews conducted with leading political actors. Hermann Giliomee weaves together life stories and interpretation to create a highly readable narrative history of the Afrikaners.

The revised and expanded edition also offers a fresh contextualization of apartheid, its paradoxes and its complex effects, and of the increasingly fraught relationship between the ANC government and the powerless Afrikaner minority. Giliomee revises current orthodoxies on white supremacy in South Africa in important ways. The result is not only a magisterial history of the Afrikaner people, but also a fuller understanding of that history, which for good or ill resonates far beyond the borders of South Africa

Reconsiderations in Southern African History

As uitgesproke kommenatator wat voor en na 1994 met die regering gebots het, een van die Dakar-gangers wat al in die 1980s die ANC gaan ontmoet het en wereldkenner van die Afrikaners, is Giliomee ten nouste betrokke by ons land se geskiedenis – en hoe ons dit verstaan. Hier verweef hy sy eie lewensverhaal met die van die land en die mense wat hom fassineer in leesbare, narratiewe vorm, vol staaltjies en onvertelde verhale.

Renowned historian Hermann Giliomee challenges the conventional wisdom on the downfall of white rule: Instead of impersonal forces, or the resourcefulness of an indomitable resistance movement, he emphasises the role of Nationalist leaders and of their outspoken critic, Van Zyl Slabbert. What motivated each of the last Afrikaner leaders, from Verwoerd to De Klerk? How did each try to reconcile economic growth, white privilege and security with the demands of an increasingly assertive black leadership and unexpected population figures?

In exploring each leader’s background, reasoning and personal foibles, Giliomee takes issue with the assumption that South Africa was inexorably heading for an ANC victory in 1994. He argues that historical accidents radically affected the course of politics.

Drawing on primary sources and personal interviews, this book sheds dramatic new light on many key moments: Verwoerd’s offer to the urban black leadership in 1950, the incursion into Angola in 1975, the unexpected breakthrough that made possible the labour reforms, Botha’s secret attempt in 1984 to forge a pact with the Soviet Union, the background to the disastrous Rubicon speech and the National Party backtracking in the negotiations.

Giliomee offers a fresh and stimulating political history which attempts not to condemn, but to understand why the last Afrikaner leaders did what they did, and why their own policies ultimately failed them.

Die gevierde historikus Hermann Giliomee beskou die val van wit regering in Suid-Afrika uit ’n prikkelende nuwe hoek: Pleks van onpersoonlike magte, of die vindingrykheid van ’n onstuitbare weerstandsbeweging, beklemtoon hy die rol van die Nasionale leiers en hul uitgesproke kritikus, Van Zyl Slabbert. Wat het die laaste Afrikanerleiers, van Verwoerd tot De Klerk, aangevuur? Hoe het hulle sekuriteit, ekonomiese groei en wit bevoorregting probeer versoen met die eise van ’n immer meer uitgesproke swart leierskap – en met foutiewe volkskattings?

In sy verkenning van elke leier se agtergrond, denke en persoonlikheid, neem Giliomee stelling in teenoor die idee dat Suid-Afrika in 1994 onafwendbaar op ’n ANC-oorwinning afgestuur het. Hoewel hy die belang van strukturele magte erken, argumenteer hy dat historiese toevallighede en die gehalte van leierskap die landspolitiek radikaal beïnvloed het.

Openhartige gesprekke met ’n magdom betrokkenes en talle primêre bronne werp dramatiese nuwe lig op sleutelmomente: Verwoerd se aanbod in 1950 aan stedelike swart leiers, die inval in Angola in 1975, die onverwagte deurbraak wat die arbeidshervormings moontlik gemaak het, Botha se geheime poging in 1984 om ’n ooreenkoms met die Sowjetunie aan te gaan, die agtergrond tot die rampspoedige Rubikon-toespraak, tronkgesprekke met Mandela, bosberade waar die kabinet taktiek beplan het – en hoe die Nasionale Party in die onderhandelinge nie sy beloftes kon nakom nie.

Giliomee bied ’n prikkelende politieke geskiedenis. Eerder as om te veroordeel, probeer hy verstaan waarom die laaste Afrikanerleiers opgetree het soos hulle het, en hoekom hul eie beleid hulle uiteindelik in die steek gelaat het.