History From South Africa: Alternative Visions and Practices (Critical Perspectives On The P)

More starkly than any other contemporary social conflict, the crisis in South Africa highlights the complexities and conflicts in race, gender, class, and nation. These original articles, most of which were written by South African authors, are from a special issue of the Radical History Review, published in Spring 1990, that mapped the development of interpretations of the South African past that depart radically from the official history. The articles range from the politics of black movements in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to studies of film, television, and theater as reflections of modern social conflict.History from South Africais presented in two main sections: discussions of the historiography of South Africa from the viewpoint of those rewriting it with a radical outlook; and investigations into popular history and popular culture - the production and reception of history in the public realm. In addition, two photo essays dramatize this history visually; maps and a chronology complete the presentation. The book provides a fresh look at major issues in South African social and labor history and popular culture, and focuses on the role of historians in creating and interacting with a popular movement of resistance and social change. Author note: Joshua Brown is Art Director of the American Social History Project at Hunter College and a member of theRadical History Revieweditorial collective.Patrick Manning is Professor of History and African-American Studies at Northeastern University. He is the author of a 1982 book on the economic history of Dahomey,Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa, 1880-1985(1987), andSlavery and African Life(1990). He is also a member of theRadical History Revieweditorial collective.Karin Shapiro, a history graduate student at Yale University, studies both American and South African history. She will complete her dissertation, "The Tennessee Coal Miners' Revolt, 1981-92: Convict Labor, Political Culture, and Southern Rural Industrialization" in 1991. She is also a member of theRadical History Revieweditorial collective.Jon Wiener teaches History at the University of California, Irvine. He is a member of theRadical History Revieweditorial collective, and a contributing editor toThe Nation.Joshua Brown is the author of 'History From South Africa: Alternative Visions and Practices (Critical Perspectives On The P)', published 1991 under ISBN 9780877228493 and ISBN 0877228493.