Twentieth-century South Africa : a developmental history /

Freund (University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa) is a professor of economic history and development studies and the preeminent scholar on the urbanization of South Africa. He is a historian by training, and the theoretical framework of this volume is developmental state analysis. The use of developmental state analysis makes the book unique with respect to South Africa in that it focuses on the social and political factors driving industrialization during the 20th century. As a result, apartheid takes a secondary, but not ignored, role in the analysis. What emerges is a detailed account of the important figures in the push for certain development strategies employed around minerals and low-cost electricity. In a country such as South Africa where the government takes a strong hand in the economic lives of citizens, knowing who made certain decisions and why is crucial to understanding why the country developed as it did. There is a considerable amount of material here for other scholars to mine and a different theoretical lens with respect to development, such as the one provided by North, Wallis and Weingast in Violence and Social Orders (CH, Jan'10, 47-2898). Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students through faculty. --Joshua C. Hall, West Virginia University