Customer Reviews

The Afrikaners: Biography of a People (Reconsiderations in Southern African History)

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This fascinating book is subtitled, "Biography of a People," and it certainly lives up to it. The book follows the history of the Boers of South Africa, from their arrival in the seventeenth century, through to the final collapse of apartheid and beyond (the book having been published in 2003). Along the way, the reader is treated to an in-depth and yet highly readable history that makes South African history come alive in an exciting and highly informative way.

I must say, this book is nothing short of a tour de force! I have read several books on South Africa, and I must admit that I was at first intimidated by this book's size and appearance, which convinced me that it was a school book. But, while this book is eminently useful as a school book, it is still highly readable, making South Africa's history interesting. It covers many details without sounding dry and academic.

So, while I have read several books on South Africa's history, I can easily say that this is the best one that I have read so far. If you are interested in South Africa and the Boers, then this is the best book you can get on the subject. I give this book my highest recommendations!

This is a wonderful new full account of the Afrikaner people of South Africa. This narrative history ranges from the first Dutch settlements to the post-apartheid era. It covers the Great Trek, the Zulu Wars and gives special attention to the harsh treatment of the Afrikaners at the hands of the British during the Boer War, in which many were forced into the worlds first concentration camps. A very fluid history and one of the only books to focus on the history of the Afrikaners as a people and a culture. The author is an eminent South African Historian, and an original fighter against Apartheid, yet he argues passionately to explain the reasons the Afrikaners, their nationalists having come to power in 1948, choose apartheid over majority rule. Important leaders are revealed such as Mr. Smuts, Mr. Botha and Mr. De Klerk as well as insights into Mandela and Mbeki's rule. A must read for scholars of south Africa and those interested in Apartheid, its creation and consequences.

A wonderful book and the first of its kind to bring the Afrikaner historical experience up to date. From their beginnings as Dutch colonizers to their Brutal wars with the Zulu as they trekked northward to escape British imperialism. The Dutch of Africa became a hardened and embittered people. As they grew from a paltry group of colonists to become their own tribe, whose roots in S. Africa predate the migration of the Zulu, they also became hardened against those who wanted to crush them, namely the British and the more viscous of S. Africa natives. This book tells the tale of a people between two worlds, on one hand the African world of the Natives and the European of the imperialists. In the end the Afrikaans, being so numerous and having no country to call home could not simply move, the way so many whites did when fleeing black nationalism in Africa. The Afrikaners became victims of their own situation, although the first to suffer the horrors of the concentration camp, and although a poor and starving people in 1900 they grew to dominate S. Africa, and many opposed helping the English in WWII. A marvelous account that brings to life the history of the region this is a muct read for anyone interested in Africa, Aparthied or colonialism's consequences.

Nog nooit het ek geskiedenis so pakkend ervaar nie. Die boek lees soos 'n roman wat jy net nie kan neersit nie. En dit laat allerhande vrae -- dit bly jou by. Lees dit!

As I'm a proud Afrikaner residing in Australia which is a great country , I wanted to buy the English version of the book "The Afrikaners" as I already have the Afrikaans version, to make it available for reading to my Australian friends so that they could see were we as Afrikaners are coming from.I can recommend this book by Hermann Giliomee to anybody that want to learn more about the Afrikaners.
With a recent visit to South - Africa I couldn't find the English version of the book but then I saw that it was available at Amazon. I immediately ordered it and what great service I received from Amazon.That is why I wont hesitate to recommend Amazon if anybody wants to order a book.

This is the best book on the history of the Afrikaners despite its shortcommings. It is ironic that the policy of apartheid, which made Afrikaners a household name and a single Afrikaans word, a derogative international slogan, receives only 50 pages covering. In a timeline of their history this is befitting, although one might criticize it. Yet, one must also remember that Giliomee as sociologist published numerous books on the evils of apartheid. What is more dissapointing, is that he skipped a whole generation, who grew up on the renegate protest newspaper "Vrye Weekblad" and who rebelled with the rock music of the Voëlvry movement, his focus being too much on politicians and intellectuals.

The Afrikaners: Biography of a People by Herman Giliomee is a scholarly history of the Afrikaners (and, earlier, Dutch) from the colonization of the Cape in 1652 to modern times. While I doubt the book is of general (international) interest, it's certainly an important contribution to South African historiography and as such will appeal to those who wish to understand the country. Despite being Afrikaans myself, I certainly learned a great deal and Giliomee's analyses of events are consistently insightful, if not always entirely convincing.

As is to be expected, the bulk of the book covers the 20th century, with particular focus on apartheid. Several of Giliomee's arguments here are very interesting, including that the National Party victory in the (all white) election of 1948 (surprisingly, with only 41% of the popular vote) was not a watershed, as the preceding system of `liberal' segregation significantly curtailed black rights. He also argues, convincingly I think, that the root of apartheid among the elite theorists was in fact a moral reaction to the problem of ensuring white domination of the political system and thus `white survival'. Crude racism was absent among the framers apartheid, the rationale was that the curtailment of black rights in the `common area' was justified in light of their status as `foreigners' who belong in separate, independent and purportedly equal homelands. As Giliomee goes on to demonstrate in detail, though, the reality was very different. Chronic underinvestment in the homelands, lamented by the elite framers (except Verwoerd), and the fact that only 13% of the country was allocated to blacks resulted in the failure of influx control, the continuation and extension of the highly disruptive migrant labor system and a regime that was brutal and patently unjust. Much less convincing in my opinion are the last two chapters in which Giliomee argues, among other things, that economically apartheid was surprisingly successful, and that de Klerk's failure to avoid a simple majority electoral system was a costly, avoidable, mistake. Also unconvincing is his contention that de Klerk's failure to ensure the survival of Afrikaans as a public language is much to be lamented; the dominance of a common and international language - English - is far too beneficial (via network effects and others) for nation building and a proper national debate for this to be compelling.

There were a couple of other problems. Giliomee repeatedly assumes a great deal of background knowledge of the history and devotes only a couple of paragraphs to several important events. Additionally, I thought the book focused excessively on elites and intellectual history; more social history and more in-depth descriptions of daily life would have been welcome.

Criticisms aside, however, The Afrikaners is magisterial and, while certainly not the final word, will likely remain influential for a generation.

This is a sympathetic history of the Afrikaners.

Another reviewer quotes M.E.Rothman as saying 'They [the Afrikaners] want[ed] to survive as a nation and do no harm to others'. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. The fact of the matter is that the Afrikaners did do a whole lot of harm to a whole lot of others. The Afrikaners are not alone in this: The British did the Afrikaners and South African blacks a whole lot of harm too. And that is but one of countless examples of history continuing to the present day. But this book does gloss over the harm Afrikaners did.

This book is a great read. It is a compelling page-turner for anyone who, like me, grew up in a white but English-speaking South African environment and who, frankly, viewed the Afrikaners as just another group to look down on. I have a whole lot more sympathy for the Afrikaners than I did before reading the book.

Could South Africa have got to a multi-racial society (and it's not quite there yet) without the apartheid process? Hermann Giliomee says no. This is the thesis of the book: The Afrikaners had their well-intentioned experiment and when they recognised it failed, they gave it up.

Well, perhaps, say I, but apartheid was a weapon of hate in the hands of many whites in general [English speaking ones too] and in the hands of senior and junior state officials in particular. Blacks suffered terribly as a result. The Afrikaner political and intellectual leadership who, according to Giliomee, were opposed to this were hardly ever outspoken enough to rock the boat. There were a few exceptions such as Van Zyl Slabbert and maybe even Giliomee himself but this book, it seems to me, comes close to excusing practically all of them by sacrificing Verwoerd and one or two others along the way.

Having said that I recommend this book.

Ironically, this, the supposedly definitive history of the Afrikaners, is written by an Afrikaner in English. It is not an English translation of an Afrikaans book. And that demonstrates why this book could be the last definitive history of the Afrikaners: They have no future. This is, I believe, Giliomee's conclusion despite the hopes he expresses in the last few pages.