Forty Lost Years: The Apartheid State and the Politics of the National Party, 1948-1994

Abstract

Forty Lost Tears is a penetrating analysis of the bleakest period of South African history: the long and violent reign of the National Party began with D. E Malan's surprise victory in the 1948 election and persisted until E W. de Klerk's concession of power and South Africa's first democratic election in 1994. Building on the author's earlier work on Afrikaner nationalism, this pioneering work explores the ongoing conflicts inside the National Party in the context of the broader political struggles of South Africa and the apartheid state.Exhaustively researched and fully illustrated with contemporary photographs and cartoons, Professor O'Meara's study analyzes the nature and functioning of the apartheid economy, the role of big business and foreign governments, military strategy, the evolution of Afrikaner literature, and the National Party's changing relationship with the Afrikaner Broederbond.Forty Lost Years is more than a compelling history: Dan O'Meara offers unique and subtle insights into questions of how the past both shapes the present and limits the future.