Does Social History have a Future? The Ending of Apartheid and Recent Trends in South African Historiography

Abstract

During the 1970s and 1980s a rich seam of revisionist scholarship emerged in South African historiography out of a radical critique of pre-existing discourses. The article traces the emergence of these new approaches with particular reference to the contribution made by Shula Marks. It goes on to consider the challenge faced by this radical historiography in light of the disintegration of the apartheid state, the transition to majority rule and the resulting popular perception that the new South Africa should 'look to the future, not to the past.' It argues, in addition, that radical historiography was facing a challenge in the 1990s from postmodernist and post-colonial critiques of its methodologies and preoccupations, which were striking at its conceptual roots in a variety of ways. The article suggests that new currents and complexities evident in revisionist forms of social history from the mid 1980s, not least in the work of Shula Marks herself, helped to prepare the way for a fertile response to these various challenges. Finally, the article considers the broader issue of history's future as a discrete academic discipline in post-apartheid South Africa.