100 books like A Military History of Modern South Africa

I was intrigued by the title, so I had to read it. And because Trevor Noah was reading the audio version, I had to listen. His story was poignant, heartbreaking, and, at times, hilarious. I found myself literally laughing out loud. His life experience couldn’t be farther away from my own.

I learned so much about South Africa, its history, its people, and its culture. I love a good inspirational rags-to-riches story, and this book did not disappoint.  

This book by South Africa’s most eminent historian, Charles van Onselen, tells the story of the night trains which brought poverty-stricken Mozambican men from Rossania Garcia on the Mozambique border to work as migrant labourers on the gold mines in Johannesburg between 1902 and 1955.

The men travelled in appalling conditions and were preyed on by petty criminals, con men, and corrupt officials. The night trains were a transport system run in partnership between the mining houses and the railways and designed to maximise profit at the expense of the health, well-being, and even the lives of the men it conveyed. 

At the end of their time in the mines, the trains sent the men back to Mozambique, often ill and broken and even insane after their experiences in the mines and in the trains. The story reflects South Africa’s evolving system of segregation and apartheid and the brutal logic… show more.

R W Johnson, an international commentator on South African affairs, first wrote a book with this question in 1977. It provided a controversial and highly original analysis of the survival prospects of the apartheid regime. 

Now, after more than twenty years of post-apartheid ANC (African National Congress) majority rule, the situation has become so crucial that he feels the question must be posed again. He moves from an analysis of Jacob Zuma’s corrupt rule to the increasingly dire state of the economy and concludes that South Africa under the ANC is fast slipping backward.

He feels that twenty years of ANC rule have shown that the party is hopelessly ill-equipped to cope with the challenges of running a modern industrial economy.

This book by former lawyer and journalist, Richard Steyn, is a study of one of South Africa’s most celebrated, brilliant yet enigmatic figures, Jan Smuts.

Soldier, statesman, philosopher, and politician, Smuts was all of these things and a man unafraid of greatness. Prime Minister of South Africa from 1919 - 1924 and again from 1939 - 1948, a distinguished veteran of three wars, an international figure, whose opinions were sought after in the councils of the world, and the personal friend and confidante of world leaders like Winston Churchill and King George VI, Richard Steyn gives an extremely readable account of how Smuts achieved greatness in so many areas. He helped establish the United Nations and drew the attention of the world to South Africa, yet failed to address the growing need to create equitable political, economic, and social relations between black and white peoples in South Africa.

Steyn does… show more.

Andrew Stewart’s book left me in no doubt that the Second World War still holds many hidden tales.

The "first victory" he writes about, is the victory of the British and Commonwealth forces over the Italian colonies in East Africa. I loved the way Stewart describes the complex relationships between men like Churchill and Generals Wavell and Cunningham.

Yet, for me, it is the setting: African bush, rivers, and mountains–and their effect on the military strategy in this war theatre that held my interest.

The South African contribution to the Second World War is small compared to that of Britain, the US, and others, yet those South Africans who volunteered to fight did so with commitment, humor, and even a sense of destiny.

This is what I found so fascinating in David Katz’s book, while analyzing military strategy, he never neglected the humanity behind the battles.

Many war graves in Italy are inscribed with South African names, attesting to the hard-won victories and the tragic losses of the 6th Armoured Division in Italy.

As a stickler for detail, I was impressed by Bourhill’s descriptions and meticulous attention to the minutia that makes for an immersive reading experience. It is especially the first-hand accounts of servicemen that bring this book to life and give a clear picture of what it was like to fight and live in Italy during the war.  

South Africa was a divided country at the start of the war, with many Afrikaner nationalists showing support for the Nazi cause. As such, it should perhaps not be a surprise that many of them acted as spies for Adolf Hitler’s regime.

I found this book valuable in that it brought a little-known piece of history into the public sphere. I also love that the book does not shy away from controversial matters and confronts several myths. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book because it’s set in South Africa and has all the elements that move me as a human being: pain, pleasure, violence, mysticism, and adventure. There was also enough drama to keep my nose immersed in this book for hours on end. To say I loved Peekay is an understatement. It takes a hellofa writer to make me feel.

I ached for Peekay, was excited for him, humiliated for him, thrilled for him, and proud of him. I felt Peekay. I agree wholeheartedly with a literary critic who said of this book: “Unabashedly uplifting…asserts forcefully what all of us would like to believe: that the individual, armed with the spirit of independence–‘the power of one’ can prevail.” 

The ex-pat novel has become something of a South African genre, what with many young people searching for new opportunities overseas, in flight from the old repressive racist regime or, latterly, the corrupt, inefficient new regime. In his debut collection of short stories, The Alphabet of Birds, Naudé referred to "the diaspora of fearful, grim, white children from South Africa," and this novel is another variation on that theme. It’s easy to fall into stereotype and cliché, and part of Naudé’s achievement is to remake the familiar scenario into something wholly original, in an account of his main character’s search for the missing reel of a film made by a Jewish filmmaker in Hitler’s Germany.

The novel contains vivid accounts of life in a ‘squat’ in London, as well as the grim atmosphere of an East German film school under Russian occupation – contrasting with the hedonistic excess of… show more.