South Africa: History in an Hour

By: Anthony Holmes

Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble

Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour.

With the passing of Nelson Mandela, ‘the father of the nation’, comes the end of an era, and the moment to look back on his remarkable saving, and remaking, of South Africa. After years of oppression and racial inequality, concentrated violence and apartheid, Mandela led the country to unite ‘for the freedom of us all’ as the country’s first black President.

SOUTH AFRICA: HISTORY IN AN HOUR gives a lively account of the formation of modern South Africa, from the first contact with seventeenth-century European sailors, through the colonial era, the Boer Wars, apartheid and the establishment of a tolerant democracy in the late twentieth century. Here is a clear and fascinating overview of the emergence of the ‘Rainbow Nation’.

Know your stuff: read about South African history in just one hour.

Critic reviews

‘If the past is a foreign country, History in an Hour is like a high-class tour operator, offering delightfully enjoyable short breaks in the rich and diverse continent of our shared past’ Dominic Sandbrook

‘The practice of History is ever-evolving, and the History In An Hour idea brings it back up to date for the digital age’ Andrew Roberts, Bookseller

‘This is genius’ MacWorld.com

Nice overview of South African history

I thought the book does a very good job of highlighting the important points for American readers of a complex history of South Africa.

Helps in acquainting you with the Origins and struggle of South Africa.

The book makes you familiar with the important events in South African History from the mid seventeenth century onwards. However, I think it covered the recent (or post world war 2) history is more details than it covered the first half of its existence. For example the Boer wars seem to be underplayed.
On the whole a helpful book to get acquainted to the history of South Africa.

Concise

A concise history of South Africa, which is reasonably well balanced. Pretty good for one hour. Unfortunately the names and places are not pronounced correctly.

Well read and gives a good overview

The history of South Africa and apartheid is too vast to tell in detail in only one hour. But this gives a good overview of the major events leading up to apartheid and the events leading to the end of the regime and political doctrine. I do however lack a nuanced view of what the different parties involved wanted and why. The book starts by saying that there are different views on what the truth is, and that all parties will tell history from their perspective. I agree with this, but would still have liked the author to at least mention the point of view of the pro-apartheid people of South Africa. I had troubles understanding why they implemented the laws to begin with, the jump to that being mentioned was too quick.

Learning A Little More

I became aware of South Africa at a young age. South Africa had refused to allow Arthur Ashe to enter the country to compete in a tennis match. I was an ardent sports fan and much of my knowledge and awareness of the world came in the context of sports. In that vein the banning of the Republic of South Africa from the Olympics gave me more information about apartheid. Finally I read James Michener's book on South Africa, which put the events of the time into more context. This short look at the country's history gave needed information for many people who knew only the headlines of the last thirty years.