LIBERALS MARXISTS AND NATIONALISTS COMPETING INTERPRETATIONS OF SA HISTORY (H/C)

THIS BOOK COMPARES CONFLICTING INTERPRETATIONS OF SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORY, PARTICULARLY THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF MASS ACTION, ARMED STRUGGLE, ECONOMIC SANCTIONS & PRESSURES FROM BUSINESS IN ENDING APARTHEID. LIPTON ARGUES THAT APARTHEID WAS ENDED BY A COMBINATION OF REFORM FROM ABOVE AND PRESSURE FROM BELOW, IN AN INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT THAT, FROM THE MID-1980S, FAVOURED ACCOMMODATION RATHER THAN INTENSIFIED REPRESSION & REVOLUTION. SHE ADDRESSES TWO FURTHER QUESTIONS. THE EXTENT TO WHICH THE COMPETING LIBERAL, MARXIST AND (AFRICAN & AFRIKANER) NATIONALIST INTERPRETATIONS CAN BY EXPLAINED BY DIFFERENCES OVER "THE FACTS" OR BY THE UNDERLYING THEORIES, POLITICAL COMMITMENTS AND/OR PROFESSIONAL LOYALTIES AND AMBITIONS OF HISTORIANS. SECOND, THE INFLUENCE OF THESE CONFLICTING HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE POLITICS OF POST-APARTHEID SA. THUS, THIS IS NOT ONLY A STUDY OF MAJOR THEMES IN SA HISTORY, BUT ALSO OF THE WAYS IN WHICH HISTORIANS CONSTRUCT THEIR ACCOUNTS, AND OF THEIR INFLUENCE ON T