Hermann Giliomee – författare

This study questions conventional wisdom about the nature and outcome of the South African conflict. Avoiding both wishful thinkiong and mere moralizing, Heribert Adam and Hermann Giliomee critically examine the applicability of such concepts as colonialism, fascism, and class exploitation cherished by the Left, and the notion of pluralism and identity on the political Right. In contrast to the liberal focus, they find the roots of the South African predicament not in ideological racism or prejudiced Calvinism but in the entrenchment of Afrikaner power and privilege. The potent force was historically mobilized against both black competitors and imperial foreign capital. Adam and Giliomee analyze the political economy of ethnic patronage in the bureaucratic expansion of apartheid administration and state capitalism. They trace both the socio-historical background and the ideologies behind changing in-group perceptions. The mechanisms by which Afrikanerdom maintains its crucial unity are evaluated against the cleavages within a ruling oligarchy in crisis. Coercion proves increasingly insufficient against politicized victims of traditional domination.Therefore, the search for a new legitimacy through inter-ethnic alliances characterizes the internal debate on political alternatives. The authros explore the limits of such co-optation strategies and assess the preconditions for federalism in an all-out confrontation.

Met Die Afrikaners: 'n Biografie vervleg Hermann Giliomee die jongste internasionale insigte met 'n leeftyd van sy eie navorsing in 'n pakkende, vars relaas oor 'n omstrede onderwerp.

Respected historian Hermann Giliomee (author of The Afrikaners) takes a fresh and incisive look at five of the most influential Afrikaner leaders - and how and why their best laid plans went tragically and horrifically wrong. From HF Verwoerd - who ironically undermined apartheid irrevocably with his schools plan - via the pompous and imperial John Vorster, and the finger-wagging PW Botha to FW de Klerk with a detour for F Van Zyl Slabbert: each leader's policies, reasoning and foibles are explored to great effect. Who knew that Verwoerd based his thinking on erroneous population data, that PW Botha had a first stroke which was never revealed to the public but greatly compromised his judgement, or that the Rubicon debacle depended on a misunderstanding? Giliomee offers a fresh and stimulating political history which attempts not to condemn but to understand why and how these last Afrikaner leaders did what they did, and why their own policies ultimately failed them.

Gerespekteerde historikus Hermann Giliomee volg die wee van vyf van die mees invloedryke Afrikanerleiers. Vir hierdie boek het hy met talle rolspelers onderhoude gevoer. Baie van hulle is nou bejaard, en wil graag hul ervarings deel, soms vir die eerste keer. Die boek gee dus 'n totaal nuwe blik op die binnewerkinge en denke van die regering tydens apartheid. Giliomee probeer om nie te verdoem nie (want verdoem is maklik, se hy) maar om te verklaar. Hoe het dit gebeur dat gerespekteerde leiers vir soveel jaar so 'n onderdrukkende stelsel kon handhaaf? Die lewens, voorstelle en keuses van Hendrik Verwoerd, John Vorster, PW Botha, Frederik van Zyl Slabbert en FW de Klerk word in diepte bespreek - met soms verrassende en onvoorspelbare nuwe insigte. So bespreek Giliomee die moontlikheid dat Verwoerd self ironies genoeg deur sy onderwyswette die doodskoot aan apartheid toegedien het. Hy vertel hoe Vorster homself as keiser van sy eie ryk beskou het, hoe Botha weens 'n verswygde eerste beroerte aan oordeelsvermoe ingeboet het en hoe die Rubicon-gebeure eintlik op 'n misverstand berus het.In die laaste hoofstukke bekyk hy FW de Klerk wat as Dopper 'n morele raamwerk probeer volg het, maar tog ook sy eie blindhede gehad het. Stimulerende eietydse geskiedenis uit die hoogste rakke.

South Africa's pre-eminent historian explains the spectacular rise - and probable demise - of the numerical minority that dominated 20th-century South Africa. Award-winning author Hermann Giliomee takes a hard analytical look at this group's dramatic ascent and possible disappearance, as he writes about ethnic entrepreneurship, the 'coloured vote', what really happened prior to the disastrous Rubicon speech and the threat to Afrikaans.

In part one of this collection, he analyses long-term forces like the powerful legal position of Afrikaner women, the expanding frontier that gave rise to individualism and later to republicanism, and the struggles about race inside the Dutch Reformed Church. The second part examines controversial aspects of more recent Afrikaner political history, including the alleged civil service purges after 1948, Nationalist corruption, the Absa ‘Lifeboat’ and the quality of Afrikaner leadership.

Hermann Giliomee, top historian, is seen as the world expert on the history of the Afrikaners. This book presents the essence of his previous, longer academic work in readable language. Many controversial aspects of South Africa’s past and the role therein of the group of people who in time would refer to themselves as “Afrikaners” are told in colour and flavour in story form, leaving readers with a fresh, sometimes challenging perspective on our past.

Dié nuwe, opgedateerde uitgawe van die topverkoper Nuwe geskiedenis van Suid-Afrika sluit bydraes in deur gerekende nuwe skrywers, wat die storie van ons land en mense reg tot op datum bring. Onder redaksie van Bill Nasson word nuwe insigte uit die geskiedskrywing en die argeologie ingeweef. Die boek begin by die onstaan van die mensdom, vertel dan die storie van die Khoikhoi, slawe en burgers, die groot migrasies van die pre-koloniale tyd en later trekboere en Voortrekkers. Dan kom die ontdekking van diamante en goud wat die gang van die politiek radikaal verander. Oorlog breek uit in 1899; ook oorloë in 1914 en in 1939 in Europa laat plaaslik nuwe kragte vry. Die boek vertel van segregasie, politieke organisasie en verset, en uiteindelik die oorgang. Hierná val die soeklig op die demokratiese presidentskappe en die onverwagte en onvoorspelbare onlangse geskiedenis, wat staatskaping -- en beurtkrag -- insluit. Met die nuutste inligting en invalshoeke word die volledige storie van Suid-Afrika en sy mense gesaghebbend dog leesbaar vertel.

The Afrikaners: Biography of A People, the first comprehensive history of the Afrikaner people based on—and critical of—the most recent scholarly work, draws on the author’s own research and interviews conducted with leading political actors. Hermann Giliomee weaves together life stories and interpretation to create a highly readable narrative history of the Afrikaners.The revised and expanded edition also offers a fresh contextualization of apartheid, its paradoxes and its complex effects, and of the increasingly fraught relationship between the ANC government and the powerless Afrikaner minority. Giliomee revises current orthodoxies on white supremacy in South Africa in important ways. The result is not only a magisterial history of the Afrikaner people, but also a fuller understanding of that history, which for good or ill resonates far beyond the borders of South AfricaReconsiderations in Southern African History