Synopses & Reviews
This compelling example of the new cultural history of South Africa is a subtle and wide-ranging study of status and respectability in the colonial Cape. Focusing on domestic relationships, gender, education, and religion, it analyzes values and modes of thinking current in different social strata, arguing that these cultural factors were related to high political developments. The result is a rich account of changes in social identity that accompanied the transition from Dutch to British overrule, and the development of white racism and ideologies of resistance to white domination.
Review
"...should be read by any student of South Africa's history and by those interested in British cultural imperialism in the nineteenth-century." Roger B. Beck, History"[Ross's] latest book, Status and Respectability in the Cape Colony, 1750-1870: A Tragedy of Manners, is in many way the most ambitious of all his books. This is a field that has long waited for a historian able to bring together his own original work and studies by other scholars in a free-ranging and provocative synthesis." International Journal of African Historical Studies"...the book is an interesting read and does, in the end, shed welcome light on what Michel Foucault called the 'microfoundations of power.'" American Historical Review
Synopsis
A cultural interpretation of South Africa's colonial history, specifically the Cape Colony, between 1750 and 1870.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 177-195) and index.