PREFACE
the racial bias in the established historiography in the late 1920S.From the
1940S onward, their successors placed unprecedented emphasis on the
historical experiences of Africans, Indians, and Coloured People. By
the 1970s, some scholars were creating a "radical" historiography, which
was influenced by Marxism and highlighted the role of capitalism and the
growth of class divisions in South Africa. Initially, a rather clear line de-
marcated the "liberal" and the "radical" perspectives, though each group
also contained great differences-e-therewere variations within the liberal
tradition, and radicals drew on rival schools of Marxism. Recently, fol-
lowing the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the collapse of the commu-
nist regimes in eastern Europe and elsewhere, and the global movement
toward an open economy, the perspectives have converged considerably.
With some exceptions, liberals have been radicalized, radicals have been
liberalized. In this book, I have drawn on the rich achievements of both
streams of contemporary South African historiography.
What of the future? Because historians now live in a post-Cold War
and postapartheid context, we may expect new departures in South Afri-
can historiography. Historians with strong commitments to the African