This text generates discussion and interest in a country that is rich in both material and cultural resources. It provides a well-rounded look at South Africa from diverse perspectives, and places South Africans at the center of their history.

A unique overview of the whole 350-year history of South Africa’s racial order, from the mid-seventeenth century to the apartheid era. Maylam periodizes this racial order, drawing out its main phases and highlighting the significant turning points. He also analyzes the dynamics of South African white racism, exploring the key forces and factors that brought about and perpetuated oppressive, discriminatory policies, practices, structures, laws and attitudes. There is also a strong historiographical dimension to the study. It shows how various writers have, from different perspectives, attempted to explain the South African racial order and draws out the political and ideological agendas that lay beneath these diverse interpretations. Essential reading for all those interested in the past, present and future of South Africa, this book also has implications for the wider study of race, racism and social and political ethnic relations.

This is the first book to combine a discussion of post-apartheid development initiatives with an extended historical analysis of South Africa's dynamic race, class, gender and ethnic identities. Bringing together the research of an historical geographer and two development geographers, the book enables us to locate the post-apartheid transition in a broad historical and spatial perspective. Within this perspective, the limitations as well as the achievements of South Africa's current transformation are highlighted.

This is the first book to combine a discussion of post-apartheid development initiatives with an extended historical analysis of South Africa's dynamic race, class, gender and ethnic identities. Bringing together the research of an historical geographer and two development geographers, the book enables us to locate the post-apartheid transition in a broad historical and spatial perspective. Within this perspective, the limitations as well as the achievements of South Africa's current transformation are highlighted.