South Africa: The politics of pre‐negotiations, 1989–1991

The international community has hailed South African state president, F.W. de Klerk, a ‘liberator’. De Klerk liberalised the political process and deracialised aspects of state and society. But how committed to racial reform are be and his government? The regime's policies, strategies and tactics over the last two years raise many concerns that the international community has either baulked or simply ignored. The argument that the government must be rewarded and encouraged is fallacious. The South African government reacts only to pressure. The international community acted prematurely by lifting some sanctions and is undermining the prospects for a post‐apartheid society based on equal rights.     

The Berlin West Africa conference of 1884–85 revisited: A report

The Blackwell Dictionary of Historians edited by John Cannon with R.H.C. Davis, William Doyle and Jack P. Greene. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1988. Pp.xiv + 480. £50.00.

Atlas of the British Empire, with Foreword by Norman Stone, edited by C.A. Bayly. Hamlyn Publishing Group/Amazon: London, 1989. Pp.256; illus. £25.00.

The First Imperial Age: European Overseas Expansion c. 1400–1715 by G.V. Scammell. London: Unwin Hyman, 1990. Pp.xix + 281; maps. £30.00 (hardback); £10.95 (paperback).

The History of Architecture in India: From the Dawn of Civilisation to the End of Raj by Christopher Tadgell. London: A.D.T Press, 1990. Pp.IX + 336. £65.00.

Saints, Goddesses and Kings: Muslims and Christians in South Indian Society 1700–1900 by Susan Bayly. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Pp.xv + 504. £40.00.

A Dictionary of Modern Indian History, 1707–1947, by Parshotam Mehra. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1985 (reprinted 1987). Pp.xiii + 823; £25.00.

Navies, Deterrence, and American Independence: Britain and Seapower in the 1760s and 1770s by Nicholas Tracy. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1988. Pp.207. £21.80.

The Imperial Challenge: Quebec and Britain in the Age of the American Revolution by Philip Lawson. Montreal and Kingston: McGill‐Queen's University Press, 1989. Pp.x + 192. £29.65.

History's Anthropology. The Death of William Gooch by Greg Dening. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1988. Pp.xix + 122; maps and illus.

Thomas Clarkson: A Biography by Ellen Gibson Wilson. London: Macmillan, 1989. Pp.xiv + 269. £35.00.

The Caribbean in Europe; Aspects of the West Indian Experience in Britain, France and the Netherlands. Edited by Colin Brock. London: Frank Cass, 1985. Pp.ix + 243. £20.00 (hardback).

The Transformation of Theology, 1830–1890. Positivism and Protestant Thought in Britain and America by Charles D. Cashdollar. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1989. Pp.xii + 489. $35.00.

Social Welfare, 1850–1950: Australia, Argentina and Canada Compared edited by D.C.M. Platt. London: Macmillan, 1989. Pp.xii + 208. £35.00.

Scientist of Empire: Sir Roderick Murchison, Scientific Exploration and Victorian Imperialism by Robert A. Stafford. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Pp.xii + 293. £30.00 (hardback).

Stanley: The Making of an African Explorer by Frank McLynn. London: Constable, 1989. Pp.410; maps and illustrations. £17.95.

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Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Volume XII: 1891–1900 edited by Francess G. Halpenny and Jean Hamelin. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990. Pp.xxix + 1305. £48.50; $78.00.

The Weary Titan: Britain and the Experience of Relative Decline, 1895–1905 by Aaron L. Friedberg. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1988. Pp.xvii + 321, maps. $14.95 (paperback).

Lost Children of the Empire: The Untold Story of Britain's Child Migrants by Philip Bean and Joy Melville. London: Unwin Hyman, 1989. Pp. ix + 177; illus. £12.95 (hardback).

The History of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, Volume III: The Hongkong Bank between the Wars and the Bank Interned, 1919–45; Return from Grandeur by Frank H.H. King. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. Pp.xxxviii + 705; maps and illus. £60.00.

Menzies and Churchill at War by David Day. London: Angus &; Robertson, 1987. Pp.xi + 271. £12.50.

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Empire and Islam: Punjab and the Making of Pakistan by David Gilmartin. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989. Pp.xii + 258. $32.00.

The Expedient Utopian: Bandaranaike and Ceylon by James Manor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Pp.xiii + 338. £30.00.

Britain, the United States, and the End of the Palestine Mandate, 1942–1948 by Ritchie Ovendale. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press for the Royal Historical Society, 1989. Pp.332. £37.50 (hardback).

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The Politics of Africa's Economic Stagnation by Richard Sandbrook with Judith Barker. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985. Pp.xvi + 180; maps. £17.50 (hardback); £7.95 (paperback).     

Apartheid on Trial: South West Africa and the International Court of Justice, 1960–66

The deputation of Basuto chiefs to England in 1907 provides an example of close co-operation between traditional African chiefs, educated black activists, and white humanitarians in pursuing to the heart of empire the claims of Africans seeking remedy for injustices suffered under colonial rule. The deputation arrived at a time when the Colonial Office felt severely constrained in its ability to fulfil its responsibility of trusteeship towards its African subjects in colonies which were ‘on the eve of responsible government’. This article highlights the support provided in England by Frank Colenso, the son of Bishop Colenso of Natal, in partnership with his sisters in Natal, and argues that, though failing in its immediate aim, this black-led initiative led to a strengthening of relationships between black South African activists and white British-based humanitarians. It also provided an impetus for the development in England of a loosely knit informal organisational framework able to provide material, moral, and political support for South African political activists who were to visit England in deputations from the newly formed South African Native National Congress (forerunner of the ANC) to pursue their grievances against the South African government in the second and third decades of the twentieth century.     

Protection,Federation and Union: The Global Impact of the McKinley Tariff upon the British Empire, 1890–94

This article takes a global historical approach to American protectionism and the British imperial federation movement of the late nineteenth century, showing how US tariff policy was intimately intertwined with the political and economic policies of the British empire of free trade. This article argues that the 1890 McKinley Tariff's policies helped call into question Britain's liberal, free trade, global empire by drumming up support for an imperial, protectionist, preferential Greater Britain. The tariff also speeded up the demand and development of more efficient transportation and communications—technological developments that made imperial federation all the more viable—within the British Empire. This article is thus a global history of the McKinley Tariff's impact upon the British Empire, as well as a study of the tariff's effect upon the history of modern globalisation.     

British Policy Towards Military Cooperation with the Republic of South Africa, 1961–1975

The early 1960s were a turbulent time in South Africa; the Sharpeville Massacre provoked condemnation from the international community, which, with the acceleration of decolonisation, was turning increasingly against Pretoria. The decision to withdraw its re-application to the Commonwealth in October 1960 further isolated South Africa. Despite this, UK–South African military cooperation remained largely unaffected until the pivotal Simonstown Agreement's termination in 1975. This article explores this relationship and explains why British policy-makers consistently maintained links with an overtly racist regime. UK–South African military cooperation was persistently controversial and engendered frequent criticism from African members of the Commonwealth and from campaigning groups such as the Anti-Apartheid Movement, whose membership included Labour ministers. Concurrently, Pretoria was viewed as an important Cold War ally, particularly in the context of the build-up of Soviet naval incursions into the Indian Ocean from 1968 onwards. This article will analyse how British officials attempted to navigate its military relations with South Africa under such heated circumstances.     

South Africa and the Italo-Ethiopian War, 1935–6

The Italo-Ethiopian War led to an extensive debate in the Union of South Africa about the future of the League of Nations’ system of collective security. The different political and social groupings in the dominion interpreted the meaning of the war for the Union from a diversity of perspectives. The Italian aggression in East Africa reverberated in the context of concurrent debates about the Union's position in relation to the British Empire. These debates were influenced by the tensions between Afrikaners and English-speaking South Africans but also by disagreement within the Afrikaner community about South African policies vis-à-vis the British Empire. The Afrikaner-dominated Union Government had to navigate between its commitments to the League on the one hand and criticism from the extreme nationalist Afrikaner opposition on the other, which claimed that South Africa's sovereignty was diminished by Britain's leading role in the League. As a mandatory power in South West Africa, the Union was also concerned to sustain League principles in order to safeguard its sub-imperialist aspirations on the continent. The public debates were strongly influenced by a discourse on ‘civilisation’, which not only reflected ambiguous views of the status of Ethiopia as a member of the League of Nations, but also raised questions about the stability of white hegemony in a segregationist state.