Under Smuts's Rule: Jan Smuts and His Impact on Black South Africans - Couverture souple

Ngqulunga, Bongani

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1776391993 ISBN 13 : 9781776391998

Editeur : Penguin Books (South Africa), 2025

Synopsis

Jan Smuts is one of the most complex figures in South African history—revered by some as a national and international statesman, condemned by others as an architect of segregation.

In Under Smuts’s Rule, prize-winning author Bongani Ngqulunga examines Smuts’s political life through the lens of how his decisions affected black South Africans. From his role in the treaty ending the Anglo-Boer War and the National Convention that created the Union of South Africa, to his years as prime minister (1919–1924 and 1939–1948), Ngqulunga traces Smuts’s actions and their consequences.

The book considers his policies as a minister under Louis Botha, his complicated relationship with Barry Hertzog’s National Party, and his eventual recognition that segregation had failed. Drawing on perspectives from influential figures such as Sol Plaatje, Alfred Xuma, John Dube, D.D.T. Jabavu, Z.K. Matthews, Nelson Mandela, and Walter Sisulu, Ngqulunga offers a balanced view—respectful yet critical.

Insightful and rigorously researched, this work reveals how Smuts’s reforms of the 1940s came too late, swept aside by the National Party and its entrenched policy of apartheid. A vital addition to South African history, Under Smuts’s Rule challenges readers to confront the contradictions of a leader who shaped a nation’s path.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Bongani Ngqulunga is an associate professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Johannesburg (UJ). Prior to this, he served as the director of the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study (JIAS), also based at UJ. He directs the African Biographies Project, which brings together scholars and writers researching and writing biographies of figures from the African continent. Ngqulunga's scholarship focuses on the politics and history of South Africa. He is the author of the multiple-winning book The Man Who Founded the ANC: A Biography of Pixley ka Isaka Seme (Penguin, 2017) and co-editor of Reappraising the Life and Legacy of Jan C. Smuts (UJ Press, 2024). He obtained his doctoral degree from Brown University in the USA.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Penguin Books (South Africa)
• Date d'édition: 2025
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1776391993
• ISBN 13: 9781776391998
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 304
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible