Jeffrey Butler – författare

"An admirable mixture of first-rate scholarship and controversial political thinking. For anybody who wants to know what the homelands policy is all about, and how it works out in practice, this rightly wrin en volume can be highly recommended."--Cape Times "Many volumes on South Africa have appeared in recent years, but few have analyzed in detail the country's program for eventually creating ten independent black African 'homelands': This book presents a detailed account of the history and conditions ...of two of the homelands, Bophmhatswana (located near Preroria) and KwaZulu (bordering on the Indian Ocean), plus some interpretation of the overall homeland policy. The two homelands studied consist of patches of noncontiguous land and have meager natural resources and virtually no modern economic infrastructures. They could exist as viable independent entities only if a large proportion of their citizens continued to live and work in white-controlled South Africa. On a slightly optimistic note, the authors observe that the homelands, with their new political structures, have created constituencies for modern leaders who may be able to wrest concessions from the whites."--Library journal "The authors, each a major scholar of the current South African scene, address their subject from an historical and legislative background, moving on the separate treatment of the two 'homelands' administration and politics; leadership (principally Lucas Mangope of Bophuthatswana and Gatsha Burhelezi of KwaZulu); income and public finance; and economic development. The study is liberally illustrated with informative tables and maps. They conclude with an excellent (though depressing) conclusion on the future of the two homelands The book is a model study of its subjects--comprehensive, searching, and candid...An indispensible addition to the slim body of book literature (of any substance) on current South African socioeconomic and political conditions, particularly as they relate to the homelands." --Choice "Striving visibly for objectiv ity, this study considers the possible contributions of the homelands to the achievement of evolut ionary change in South Africa, while at the same time thoroughly documenting the vast physical and political constraints on homeland development. An extremely useful source."--Foreign Affairs

Change in Contemporary South Africa examines the intricate and often contradictory realities of South Africa during a period of significant political and social tension. The book explores the coexistence of apparent governmental stability—marked by economic growth, a strong coercive apparatus, and sustained White political dominance—with increasing signs of resistance, including labor strikes, student unrest, and growing international condemnation. By presenting a range of interpretations—from authoritarian entrenchment to the potential for revolutionary change—it delves into the complex dynamics that shape South Africa's trajectory.Structured across sections that analyze internal community dynamics, instruments of White domination, and the country's external relations, the book scrutinizes the processes of change within South Africa's unique socio-political framework. With contributions from scholars spanning diverse disciplines and perspectives, it raises critical questions about the future of racial inequality, the potential for redistribution of power and wealth, and the role of internal and external pressures in shaping outcomes. This comprehensive yet nuanced analysis offers a valuable lens for understanding a society on the brink of transformation, with implications that resonate far beyond its borders.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1975.

Change in Contemporary South Africa examines the intricate and often contradictory realities of South Africa during a period of significant political and social tension. The book explores the coexistence of apparent governmental stability—marked by economic growth, a strong coercive apparatus, and sustained White political dominance—with increasing signs of resistance, including labor strikes, student unrest, and growing international condemnation. By presenting a range of interpretations—from authoritarian entrenchment to the potential for revolutionary change—it delves into the complex dynamics that shape South Africa's trajectory.Structured across sections that analyze internal community dynamics, instruments of White domination, and the country's external relations, the book scrutinizes the processes of change within South Africa's unique socio-political framework. With contributions from scholars spanning diverse disciplines and perspectives, it raises critical questions about the future of racial inequality, the potential for redistribution of power and wealth, and the role of internal and external pressures in shaping outcomes. This comprehensive yet nuanced analysis offers a valuable lens for understanding a society on the brink of transformation, with implications that resonate far beyond its borders.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1975.

Cradock, the product of more than twenty years of research by Jeffrey Butler, is a vivid history of a middle-sized South African town in the years when segregation gradually emerged, preceding the rapid and rigorous implementation of apartheid. Although Butler was born and raised in Cradock, he avoids sentimentality and offers an ambitious treatment of the racial themes that dominate recent South African history through the details of one emblematic community. Augmenting the obvious political narrative, Cradock examines poor infrastructural conditions that typify a grossly unequal system of racial segregation but otherwise neglected in the region’s historiography. Butler shows, with the richness that only a local study could provide, how the lives of blacks, whites, and mixed-race coloureds were affected by the bitter transition from segregation before 1948 to apartheid thereafter.