This book is hard to follow. The maps are very poor and there is no sense of historical journey. It is very fact based and hard to follow.

Based on the title, I assumed that this book would be a relatively light overview of S. African history and would provide some commentary about how S. Africa had gotten to where it is today. My assumption was wrong, however, and I found it to be much more academic than I expected.

It seems to be the ambition of many historians to make their subject as dry and inaccessible as possible. I mean, why write a sentence like 'Then Bob rode his horse into the sunset' when you could write 'following, Robert employed his most favored mode of transport, equestrianism, to progress toward the sun, which was setting, as it had done ever since the Earth had formed from a rotating disk of hot dust, and was expected to do in the foreseeable future, every night."

Ross seems to struggle with the 'concise' aim of the book on a number of levels. First, as I've alluded to, he wastes a great deal of space with sentences like "He was succeeded by Balthazar Johannes Vorster, often, and surprisingly, anglicized to John, who was relatively junior in the cabinet and unforgiven by its elder members for his participation in the Ossewabrandwag, in the course of which he had spent some years in gaol during the war for nazi sympathies.' And, perhaps my favorite: 'Nevertheless, the cultures that have been developed are only local when, as is the case with certain of S. Africa's ethnicicities, they have been created in almost conscious rejection of values, which within the confines of S. Africa, are universal.' If you found those sentences clear and riveting, rush right out and buy this book.

Second, he seems bent on covering relatively minor occurrences with a single (run-on) sentence that has no real context and assumes that the reader has previous knowledge of the event. Combine that with the fact that there are no good maps to refer to and no glossary to consult when you forget the difference between an 'inboekelinge' and a 'dorp', and you have a book that seems almost intentionally obscure.

So why not one star? Ross's scholarship is undeniable, and he is as unbiased as can be reasonably expected.

The bottom line, though, is that I had to fight with this book to get anything out of it. The benefit of its conciseness was negated by my wandering mind and the fact that I had to re-read sentences constantly. Go with Leonard Thompson's 'History of South Africa' which, though twice the length, appears to have been written with the goal of actually informing and entertaining the reader.

This work by the well respected historian Robert Ross is primarily concerned with the economic, social, and political factors that influenced South African history. As the title suggests, it is a concise history and thus some topics receive less coverage than one might like. For example, the description of the Boer War takes place in a little over two pages. But the text is both coherent and highly informative, and strives to be as complete as possible given the limit on length presumably imposed by the people who publish Cambridge Concise Histories. The book begins with a physical description of the South African environment and then discusses the indigenous peoples and their societies previous to 1652, the point at which the Dutch established a base on the Cape, and where many histories begin. The next chapters are entitled Colonial Conquest, Unification, Consolidation, and Apartheid. Next follows a chapter that was of particular interest to me, The Costs of Apartheid, in which the author considers the political, social, and economic consequences of the imposition of apartheid. The book ends with the chapters Let Freedom Reign, and Epilogue: The Acid Rain of Freedom. My single complaint is that I would have found a few more maps helpful. But the careful reader will most likely find this to be an excellent book.

As hard as "July's People" tried to emphasize the effects of apartheid on South Africa, it failed miserably. The character devlopment is abysmal. However, if this book had a plot, it would certainly be worse. This book could only have been more aweful if the ending had space aliens, but then again, maybe it did.

Nadine Gordimer's extensive collection of books, essays, short stories and magazine articles brilliantly expose apartheid for all to see. She does not spoon feed her readers. She writes with a spare hand and an intelligent mind which challenges the reader to stretch beyond the usual formulaic pap that passes as literature. There are no lectures, no unnecessary characterizations, no excess plots beyond the snapshot of truth presented for the moments described. Her Nobel Prize for Literature is richly deserved. And I, for one, am in awe of her talent, her humanity and her courage in writing and remaining in South Africa as her books were banned during times of great danger. She paints the blemishes and horrors side by side; white and black; but she also reveals the courage and dignity of those who suffered the most, and those who risked the most to tell the world from behind the frontlines of apartheid. 'July's People' is about all of the above if the ending of apartheid had been different from the reality of its demise in that beautiful but damaged country. A black servant, July, helps his white employers to escape insurrection by hiding them in his village. Are they as liberal as they think? Is he without ulterior motives? Will they ever be truly able to understand each other? Ahhh, the pages beckon! Enjoy the ride.

This work is just that, work.
Reading it was not an absorbing experience, the structure of the novel is exposed as if the authors notes were printed in bold highlights and the rest of the text was word processed, cut and paste from some rather dull historical reference works trumped up as diaries. The characters have no depth and behave in unrealistic ways that allow them to be hung easily on the rickity framework of the plot. The protagonist is a pedantic boor who never engages.The author is carefull however to make sure that the color of each of the females characters panties is never left in doubt. The book seems to expouse an enlightened humanist view but its insights are trite, obvious and easy. Gee whiz, humans are a complex mix of good and evil.
If you are interested in Boer War read the memoirs of Winston Churchill from which much of this novel was lifted and ignore this labored effort at cleverness.

After reading the only review of this book in Amazon I had to re-read the book again to see if perhaps I had only dreamed how much I liked it. While the second reading was not quite as delightful as the first I still found this a completely enjoyable book from beginning to end. Perhaps if one knows more about the history of the Boer war than I do it could prove less enthalling, but I learning alot about that era that I had little inclination to explore prior to this.
The story begins with a best selling biographer being hired to write a biography on a supposed illustrious member of a Scottish clan. The subject of the biography, a doctor who lived in South Africa during the Boer war, is reputed to be a hero. The more the biographer digs the more he uncovers, most of it not so good about this physician hero.
I loved the way the story unfolded bit by bit. I thought the author did a wonderful job of balancing the uncovering of historical mysteries that surround the biographer's subject and the biographer's own realization that few people are actually all good or all evil but most just reacting to the times and circumstances in which they live.
This is a great, fun, book to read. If you like mysteries that are more than "who done its" but have alot of meat to chew on, I would recommend it. Its worth looking for even out of print. I plan to get enough copies so a mystery book group I belong to can read and discuss it. I feel sure they will find it a good read.

kaffir boy was a good book but this one was just terrible. like one of the previous reviewers said, it's full of self-promotion and pats on the back. mark's ego must have just blown out of proportion after the success of kaffir boy. now, that's he's married a white woman, he's got it all apparently. i certainly feel no sympathy for him after reading this book.

i saw the man speak at a college and let me tell you, he is even more arrogant in person than he is on page.

After having read Kaffir Boy, Mark Mathabane's eye-opening account of township life under apartheid, I was looking forward to his insights into US race relations (as the dust jacket promises). Unfortunately, this book contains virtually none. It is a big bore, so full of self-congratulation for having beat the odds, for being so open minded, for being so well-read, for being such a wonderful writer, etc. that by page fifty my interest was replaced by irritation. The relentlessly stilted nature of his prose does not help (he crams in so many SAT-words, it's as though he were trying to fulfil a quota). Finally, he seems to think the Acknowledgements section too confining, so he peppers his mundane descriptions of moving from this city to that with mentions of every nice person he ever met in the past ten years. Thumbs down.

I agree with the previous reviewer that this was a big disappointment. After reading the amazing book Miriam's Song, I was looking forward to Mark's own story. Upon his arrival in America, he enters college under a tennis scholarship. Continually disappointed with his college choices, he changes schools three times within the first year and a half. He is unable to make the tennis teams and is voted off a soccer team by his teammates. Likely because of cultural differences, Mark has many difficulties making friends. He comes across as a self-serving egoist. He's not a sympathetic central figure for a book.

Likable tennis star Stan Smith emerges as the behind-the-scenes hero. Mark repeatedly approaches Stan and his wife for more money, first for college and later for grad school. (This does not add to Mark's appeal.) Though Stan and his family live frugally, they continue to provide Mark with money and introductions to their personal friends.

Despite my dissatisfaction, I still look forward to reading Mark's Kaffir Boy. However, I will think twice before reading his other books in which I was previously interested (about the interracial relationship with his wife and the book about his grandmother/mother/sister).

If you've read other books of Mark's, you need to read this as part of his story. If you haven't read any of his books yet, I wouldn't recommend starting with this one.

The premise is great: cruise ship passengers survive the end of the world and start anew.
The author is an engineer and this book is written as only an engineer can: dry and boring.
There is no life in the characters (at least in the first couple hundred pages which is as far as I got). It reads like a college textbook.
At one point, the survivors have a contest to name their new city. The author has them choose: "Engineering Village"...Geez, how creative!
I will give this book praise on one point: It cured my insomnia on two occasions. This is the absolute truth. Couldn't sleep, started reading and after about 3 pages I was out.

This book has an interesting premise... our modern world is essentially destroyed by colliding with a comet. However, after The Event the story quickly turns into the minutes of an endless series of committee meetings. I don't know if I can force myself to even finish this one.

I really enjoyed this book, although it wasn't the usual exciting page-turning thriller. Imagine that you're on a cruise with the world's smartest engineers in most disciplines, and suddenly the world as we know it is destroyed by a comet. The only survivors are in a circle of land which encompasses some of the south part of Africa and the surrounding sea. They know that their supplies won't last forever. They know they're in a race against time to try to reconstruct and bring things back up to date as soon as possible - before any pass away and the knowledge is lost forever. They become very frustrated because they have big plans but don't have the very basic tools to do anything with, such as nails or metal. They argue as they try to figure out some system of government and money. Luckily they form a trust and an alliance with the local people who already know how to survive without technology. Finally, when things begin to take some semblance of shape they are attacked by a group of hostile people who also survived, who arrive by boat. Suddenly priorities change drastically. I liked the book because I learned some things I didn't already know. I didn't like the way it ended and thought it was a bit sappy, but then in retrospect, maybe it was important that it did end that way!

As an english-project I read the novel in class. The novel is about a fifteen year old white boy who had moved with his family from South Africa to Britain. After a lot of problems and a suicide attempt he comes clear with his life. At the beginning we totally disliked the book as it was confusing because of its difficult structure. In the end the structure was clearer. I did not like the jumps between the times and places because you could not follow the content. I liked that Selwyn's feelings were shown that you could share his identity. He directly talked to the reader and explained everything to him. All in all I liked the book because it shows the difficulties a mover has to face. Also the way of narrating the novel was good except the first five chapters.

The novel is very boring. Except one part, where the protagonist tries to commit suicide. It has also a different structure, so it is difficult to understand. The difficulty is caused by permanent jumping between the times. Another negative Point is that the protagonist's favourite thing in the world is POETRY.

I could recommend this book to every aspiring travel writer as an example of what not to do. I was totally uninterested as to what wine the writer ate with his dinner, the quality of his seat on the airplane, or any other of the zillions of details he insisted on providing. I was interested to know his impressions of the people and cultures he found in those very interesting lands he visited. I did not find out. This book was written for readers of the Ladies Home Companion, I reckon.

I was very disappointed when I recieved this book. It is one of the few works on this subject but is very basic and does not cover the subject in depth. The book is aimed at a young audience, ie. elementary school age, and will be of minimal help or interest to a university student or any reader who desires more than just a superficial, general knowledge of the Khoikhoi people. The language is very simple and the book contains photographs on nearly every page.

This book was a tremendous letdown after the other excellent books in the Culture Shock series I have read - you can find just as much information in a good travel guide.

I bought the book expecting insightful comments from a South African writer about 'customs and etiquette', as it is subtitled; instead the book is filled with trite comments and self-explanatory 'cultural tips.' In the 'cultural quiz' at the end of the book, there are questions like "You are invited to a dinner party by your boss at their home. Do you..." answers include "Say yes, and whoop around the office telling everyone, including those who may well have not been invited, that you are off to eat with the boss." In another book, this might have been a joke answer, but the level of 'cultural insight' in this book is so poor that it wasn't funny at all.

Unlike some of the other books in the series, this book is clearly aimed for a audience planning to be in South Africa for the long-term, perhaps immigrating. It gives insufficient attention to shorter-term visitors, off-the-beaten track travellers, volunteer NGO workers, or people who might be living somewhere other than the rich white suburbs.

Though the author has travelled to other countries, she doesn't seem to have a grasp on what situations are most 'culture-shocky' to new arrivals. An immigrant author from another country would probably have done a better job at pointing at what visitors will find most odd or difficult to adjust too.

Dee Rissik does not even address the topic of gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender visitors or immigrants to South Africa, despite the fact that this is the only country in the world where sexual orientation is legally protected in the constitution. Her sections on women, lifestyles, marriage, nudity, pub culture, and even sex, never once mention GLBT concerns or interests. This is enormous heterosexist oversight is unforgivable.

I was ready to give up halfway through the book, but pushed all the way to the end, hoping for some redeeming quality. The closest it comes is two or three pages of 'common south african words used cross culturally.' And that, in itself, is not sufficient to justify purchasing the other 200-odd pages of this book.

My husband is South African and I thought this would be a great "basic." It was very disappointing... not to mention potentially hazardous as it includes directions to leave ingredients out on the counter for 2-3 days... I won't be using this book! The most positive result of this book was a good laugh at the recipes!

I cant believe the negative reviews about this book. those reviewers clearly dont have a clue why this book is interesting - it is a book on history of SA cooking, written in 1891 and acknowledged favorably by for example historian louis leipoldt, one of the greatest authorities on SA cooking. It is a glimpse into the family kitchen of a typical old SA household, not a glitzy Charley Trotter or Bon Appetit cook by numbers. Try some of the recipes in their context; ie good friends, good wines, and they may surprise you.

I was very dissapointed by the negative reviews of this book and thought it might help prospective buyers to provide some background on the author and her book which was a classic for many years. I quote from 'The South African Culinary Tradition' by Renata Coetzee: 'Hilda's Where is it?' was first published in 1891. This cookery book, however, differs considerably from the Dijkman cookery book (published in 1890)on account of its ambiguous nature. Hilda arranged all the old recipes gathered from family members - among whom where members from quite prominent Cape families - alphabetically, but interspersed among them she added all kinds of other recipes for English, foreign and Eastern dishes that she had obtained from strangers or collected herself on her travels. She did indeed represent the typical tastes of the well-to-do burghers at the Cape when she included items such as tomato bredie, curry, bobtie, bread dumplings, koeksisters, fritters, fricadels, fish kedgeree, yellow rice and pickled fish, Van der Hum liquer, quince sambal, chutney, sour fig jam and abalone and even Malay dishes such as kebabs and sosaties.' Considering the fact thus that this book represents a very personal collection made by a woman who lived more than 100 years ago I have to take issue with the reviewer who was surprised at the instruction to 'leave standing on a shelf for 2 - 3 days'! That is the way things were done in those days! The book may not be relevant any longer but it certainly is a very important piece of Africana and any serious cook, interested in the South African culinary tradition, must find this an informative and interesting book.