Landmark study of South Africa's past now out in paperback

This month saw launches in both Johannesburg and Cape Town of the paperback editions of the Cambridge History of South Africa Volumes 1 & 2. These pocket-friendly new African editions retail for almost R1 000 less than the solid hardback UK editions (at R250 for Volume 1 and R350 for Volume 2), so history buffs will only need to part with six of the new Mandela-emblazoned hundred-rand bills for both volumes of this heavyweight historical study of Mzansi.

NRF Chair in Archive & Public Culture, Carolyn Hamilton, was a co-editor (with Bernard K Mbenga and Robert Ross) of Volume 1, which grapples with the period 'from Early Times to 1885'. Volume 1 will be of special interest to APC researchers concerned with the challenges of archive relating to the pre-industrial past.

Its publication in paperback is timely, coinciding as it does with several important developments in research into these early eras, notably the Five Hundred Year Initiative which has just been completed (see the Journal of Southern African Studies, 2012 special focus on this) and most recently, the inauguration of the 'pre-1652 Historiography Catalytic Project' being run under the auspices of the higher education ministry's Special Project of the Humanities and the Social Sciences. The main purpose of this latter project is to coordinate a network of academics and researchers 'in order to construct a history of broader South Africa from the 11th to the 16th centuries'.  

Volume 1 offers a six-chapter overview of the history of the period bracketed by an opening chapter on the production of the history of the period, and a closing chapter on accompanying transformations of consciousness. It will be an invaluable tool for students and professors of African history worldwide.

Volume 2, edited by Robert Ross, Anne Kelk Mager and Bill Nasson, covers the period from 1885-1994, providing an account of the making of South Africa's 'disfigured world' following the mineral discoveries of the late 19th century, and ending with an account of recent historiographical directions.