From colony to industrial state: South African historiography as seen from England∗

Abstract

A key question in South African historiography is how far South Africa's original relations of conquest (as distinct from white supremacy) has shaped her subsequent relations of industrial production. To address this question properly, South African historians should free themselves from their tendency to be bewitched by too partisan a set of perspectives and an unwillingness to concede that other analytical perspectives may have value. Fortunately there are signs that the liberal‐Marxist dichotomy is beginning to fade sufficiently for both sides to see more clearly the common ground on which they may fruitfully disagree. The article argues that liberal and Marxist historians of South Africa are in fact less divided than some of them suppose. This theme is developed with reference to four overlapping controversies in South African historiography: the issues of racial ideology among whites, of market and hierarchy, “failures in class formation” and the South African state's managerial functions on behalf o...