Racial segregation and the origins of apartheid in South Africa, 1919-36 /

Dubow has written a sophisticated study, building successfully on John Cell's The Highest Stage of White Supremacy (CH, May '83), Shula Marks's The Ambiguities of Dependence in South Africa (CH, Jan '87), and Paul Rich's White Power and the Liberal Conscience (1984). Dubow traces the maturation of segregation during the interwar years, a political program, he argues, that had "as much to do with the ideological legitimation of white domination as with the requirements of capital accumulation." In part 1, Dubow examines how segregation was transformed into a hegemonic ideology by the 1930s, providing a flexible vocabulary that spoke to capitalists, farmers, and white workers, as well as many Africans. Part 2 analyzes the transformation of the Native Affairs Department, from its relatively paternalistic origins when it acted on behalf of Africans to cushion the vicissitudes of industrialization, to a repressive bureaucratic machine engaged, by the eve of WW II, in more purposeful social engineering. Finally, part 3 explores how segregation materialized in General Hertzog's Native Bills of 1936 (which abolished the nonracial Cape franchise and extended the African "reserves") and discusses the failure of an African elite to build a mass-based national organization to oppose this legislation. Index and excellent bibliography. Recommended for upper-division undergraduates and above. J. O. Gump University of San Diego