History - Jonathan Ball Publishers

The Rise and Fall of Apartheid

From Racial Domination to Majority Rule

Did white South Africa crack, or did its leadership yield sufficiently and just in time to avert a revolution? The transformation has been called a miracle, belying gloomy predictions of race war in which the white minority went into a laager and fought to the last drop of blood. Why did it happen? Professor Welsh views the topic against the backdrop of a long history of conflict spanning apartheid’s rise and demise, and the liberation movement’s suppression and subsequent resurrection.

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Churchill & Smuts

Die Vriendskap

Die eiesoortige vriendskap tussen Winston Churchill en Jan Smuts is ’n studie in kontraste. Richard Steyn, die skrywer van Jan Smuts: Afrikaner sonder grense, bestudeer dié hegte vriendskap deur twee wêreldoorloë aan die hand van ’n magdom argiefstukke, briewe, telegramme en die omvangryke boeke wat oor albei mans geskryf is.

Ook beskikbaar in Engels as Churchill & Smuts: The Friendship

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Louis Botha

Krygsman, generaal, staatsman

Louis Botha was ’n briljante Boeregeneraal wie se taktiese vernuf en intuïtiewe aanslag vir etlike oorwinnings oor die Britse magte in die Anglo-Boereoorlog gesorg het. Richard Steyn gee op meesterlike wyse insae in die lewe van hierdie grootse Suid-Afrikaanse krygsman en staatsman.

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Rhodes and his Banker

Empire, Wealth and the Coming of Union

Rhodes and his Banker is an account of the remarkable friendship between a larger-than-life historical figure and a modest, unassuming banker, both of whom were personally involved in all the major political and financial developments in Southern Africa during the closing decades of the 19th century.

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White Supremacy

A Brief History of Hatred

Gavin Evans explores the roots of the white supremacist ideology, traced back to the 19th century to Charles Darwin and Francis Galton’s race-based theories. He examines the spread of eugenics and the rise of Nazism and Apartheid.

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Fading Footprints

In search of South Africa’s first people

Part historical detective story, part memoir, Fading Footprints traces the author’s journey into the magical folklore of the /xam hunter-gatherers of the Upper Karoo. Through archival research and on field trips in South Africa, De Prada-Samper reveals the tragic scope of the genocide of the /xam San by European colonisers.

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Samuel Daniell

An Enigmatic Life in Southern Africa and Ceylon, 1799-1811

Samuel Daniell is the first biography of the life and work of one of the most accomplished, yet least-known artists from the era of British exploration.

Available June 2025

Hollywood on the Veld

When movie mayhem gripped the City of Gold

In 1913, a secretive American millionaire, who lived on the top floor of the famous Carlton Hotel, had a crazy idea: to make movies in Johannesburg. Hollywood on the Veld is the never-been-told-before story of the rise and fall of the strangest and most unique movie empire ever.

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Apartheid: An Illustrated History 3rd Edition

An Illustrated History

Apartheid: An Illustrated History examines the defining experience of modern South Africa’s transition from colonialism to democracy. What began in May 1948 as an ambitious project to engineer white supremacy at the expense of the country’s black majority spawned 46 years of repressive authoritarianism and bitter resistance, which claimed the lives of thousands and pushed the country to the brink of civil war.