Guns, Race, and Power in Colonial South Africa

by William Kelleher Storey

Overview

In this book, William Kelleher Storey shows that guns and discussions about guns during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries were fundamentally important to the establishment of racial discrimination in South Africa. Relying mainly on materials held in archives and libraries in Britain and South Africa, Storey explains the workings of the gun trade and the technological development of the firearms. He relates the history of firearms to ecological, political, and social changes, showing that there is a close relationship between technology and politics in South Africa.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107403963
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/29/2012
Series:	African Studies , #109
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	398
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.91(d)

About the Author

William Kelleher Storey is associate professor of History at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi. He is the author of Science and Power in Colonial Mauritius (1997), Writing History: A Guide for Students (1998; 2nd Ed. 2003; 3rd Ed. 2008), which he developed when teaching in Harvard's Expository Writing Program. He has received a research and writing fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Abbott Payson Usher Prize from the Society for the History of Technology for his article in Technology and Culture. In 2006, he received the Teacher's Award from the Mississippi Humanities Council.

Table of Contents

1. Guns in colonial South African history; 2. Early colonialism and guns at the Cape up to 1795; 3. Guns, conflict, and political culture along the Eastern Frontier, 1795–1840; 4. Hunting, warfare, and guns along the Northern Frontier, 1795–1868; 5. Capitalism, race, and breechloaders, 1840–80; 6. Guns and the Langalibalele Affair, 1873–5; 7. Guns and confederation, 1875–6; 8. Risk, skill, and citizenship in the Eastern Cape, 1876–9.

Editorial Reviews

"Recommended." - Choice

"William Storey's fascinating and densely researched book picks up the subject of guns in the political discourse in South Africa in the nineteenth century.... Storey has written a good account of the way gun ownership and the changing discourse of racial politics were interwoven. His argument weaves its way through the complexities of the story carefully and clearly. It is a worthy addition to Cambridge's African Series." - Richard Price, University of Maryland, The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History

From the Publisher