Providing a much-needed antidote to recent revisionist attempts to 'rehabilitate' apartheid, this major new text by a leading authority offers a considered and substantive reassessment of the nature, endurance and significance of apartheid in South Africa as well as the reasons for its dramatic collapse.

Preface.- Introduction: Apartheid's Global Significance.- The Debate on the Nature of South Africa's Racial Policies: Totalitarian or Colonial?.- Origins of Racial Policy: Consequence of an Imperialist War or the Prejudice of the Frontier?.- Segregation: Home-grown or Imported?.- The Theory and Practice of Apartheid: Was There a Blueprint?.- South Africa in a Post-Colonial World: Modernising or Eroding Apartheid?.- From Vorster to Botha: New Departure or Militarised Cul de Sac?.- The Pursuit of a Negotiated Settlement: Choice or Necessity?.- The Unexpected Transition to Majority Rule: Analysing a Miracle?.- The Worldwide Anti-Apartheid Movement: Peripheral or Crucial?.- Conclusion: Taking the Long View on Apartheid's Demise.

'Adrian Guelke has a considerable reputation for effectively challenging the conventional wisdom. This text amply confirms his analytical skills and - in particular - a willingness to take issue with more orthodox interpretations of South Africa's role in international politics.' - Professor J.E.Spence OBE, King's College London, UK '[O]riginal and well-informed...The chapters work best where there is a conventional wisdom to be exploded, but Geulke also makes fresh sense out of a number of unusually contested issues, for example whether segregation was 'home-grown' or 'imported', whether there was or was not a 'blue-print' for apartheid, and whether the Botha presidency should be understood as a new departure or a 'militarized cul de sac'. - Anthony Butler, Political Studies Review 'His book is a significant contribution to our understanding of how profoundly global developments influenced in the past and are likely in the future to influence South Africa.' - Merle Lipton, International Affairs

'Adrian Guelke has a considerable reputation for effectively challenging the conventional wisdom. This text amply confirms his analytical skills and - in particular - a willingness to take issue with more orthodox interpretations of South Africa's role in international politics.' - Professor J.E.Spence OBE, King's College London, UK '[O]riginal and well-informed...The chapters work best where there is a conventional wisdom to be exploded, but Geulke also makes fresh sense out of a number of unusually contested issues, for example whether segregation was 'home-grown' or 'imported', whether there was or was not a 'blue-print' for apartheid, and whether the Botha presidency should be understood as a new departure or a 'militarized cul de sac'. - Anthony Butler, Political Studies Review 'His book is a significant contribution to our understanding of how profoundly global developments influenced in the past and are likely in the future to influence South Africa.' - Merle Lipton, International Affairs

A major reassessment of the nature of South African apartheid and its global context by a leading scholarTimely publication ahead of 5th anniversary of release of Nelson Mandela from jail and start of transition to majority ruleHighly topical antidote to attempts by revisionist historians to rehabilitate Apartheid

This series is designed to provide a forum and a stimulus for leading scholars to address big issues in world politics in an accessible but original manner. A key aim is to transcend the intellectual and disciplinary boundaries which have so often served to limit rather than enhance our understanding of the modern world. Each book addresses a major issue or event that has had a formative influence on the 20th century or the 21st century world which is now emerging. Each makes its own distinctive contribution as well as providing an original but accessible guide to competing lines of interpretation. Taken as a whole, the series will rethink contemporary international politics in ways that are lively, informed and - above all - provocative.