The Afrikaners

A Concise History

Hermann Giliomee, internationally renowned historian, tells the dramatic story of the group that came to call themselves the Afrikaners. This shorter, updated version of his masterly The Afrikaners: Biography of a People recounts a colourful history of survival against the odds, and eventual political surrender.

Upon publication, The Afrikaners received numerous awards and international accolades. The British Sunday Times called it ‘fascinating and unmissable’; the Financial Times ‘without equal’; and The Economist picked it as one of its books of the year.

This new, concise version retains the essence of the longer academic work, while recreating the past with all its irony and drama in a lively narrative form. Many aspects of South Africa’s contentious history are freshly examined, leaving readers with new, often challenging perspectives.

About the author

Hermann Giliomee is an internationally renowned historian. His bestselling Die Afrikaners was adapted into a documentary for kykNET in 2018, while the original English, The Afrikaners, was published to acclaim here and in the US and UK. He has been an associate at Yale, Cambridge and the Wilson Centre for International Scholars in Washington DC.