`Darryl Glaser supplies an illuminating overview of the scholarship since 1970 on South Africa's political history. His emphasis is on the debates between liberals, Marxists, and to a lesser extent "post-structuralists" about the origins and the course of South Africa's racial order' - Tom Lodge, University of Witwatersrand

`A well-researched, well-argued, readable, interesting, informative and competent study' - Capital and Class

Providing a wide-ranging and critical introduction to contemporary South Africa, this book uses an interdisciplinary lens to introduce the student to the main debates, historical context, and issues that have characterized the study of South Africa over the last three decades.

Key topics include: the role of colonialism, capitalism and modernity in the formation of the racial order; changes in the South African state; questions of class, race and ehtnicity; black resistance; and the transition to democracy.

A number of underlying debates are critically evaluated. For exmple, the contribution of materialist and class-analytic approaches, the application of post-structuralism and theories of modernity, and the prospects for democratic liberalism and socialism in post-apartheid South Africa.