Waddy, N: The Dawning of Apartheid

Interest in apartheid remains at a high level, both in South Africa and worldwide. Most accounts of apartheid, however, give short shrift to apartheid s deep historical roots in South Africa, and to the wider historical context in which it took shape. Meanwhile, little historical research has been done on the nature of British racial policy in the immediate post-war years. This book, therefore, fills a critical gap by examining British and South African attitudes to racial policy at the highest and most decisive level: in the Westminster and Cape Town Parliaments. By an analysis of the racial attitudes expressed in the Parliamentary debates regarding several important themes, this book sheds light on the growing schism between British and South African perspectives on race. It emerges that the 1948 election in South Africa, which brought an apartheid Government to power, was less determinative than many commentators have suggested. Readers interested in the evolution of racial attitudes and racial policy will find the book indispensable, as will those who wish to gain insight into the increasingly strained relationship between South Africa and Britain from 1945 to 1961.