The Cambridge history of South Africa /

Includes index.

v. 1. From early times to 1885

v. 1. The production of preindustrial South African history / Carolyn Hamilton, Bernard K. Mbenga, and Robert Ross -- The appearance of food production in Southern Africa 1,000 to 2,000 years ago / John Parkington and Simon Hall -- Farming communities of the second millennium : internal frontiers, identity, continuity and change / Simon Hall -- Khoesan and immigrants : the emergence of colonial society in the Cape, 1500-1800 / Robert Ross -- Turbulent times : political transformations in the north and east, 1760s-1830s / John Wright -- From slave economy to settler capitalism : the Cape colony and its extensions, 1800-1854 / Martin Legassick and Robert Ross -- From colonial hegemonies to imperial conquest, 1840-1880 / Norman Etherington, Patrick Harries, and Bernard K. Mbenga -- Transformations in consciousness / Paul S. Landau.

"Reflecting on South Africa's achievement of majority rule, this book takes a critical and searching look at the country's past. It presents South Africa's past in an objective, clear, and refreshing manner. With chapters contributed by ten of the best historians of the country, the book elaborately weaves together new data, interpretations, and perspectives on the South African past, from the Early Iron Age to the eve of the mineral revolution on the Rand. Its findings incorporate new sources, methods, and concepts, for example providing new data on the relations between Africans and colonial invaders and rethinking crucial issues of identity and consciousness. This book represents an important reassessment of all the major historical events, developments, and records of South Africa - written, oral, and archaeological - and will be an important new tool for students and professors of African history worldwide"--Provided by publisher.