Jamie Miller's An African Volk: The Apartheid Regime and Its Search for Survival is an ambitious project that integrates aspects of South Africa's social, economic, political, domestic, and foreign policy histories. Miller places his work “at the nexus of African, decolonization, and Cold War history” (p. 1). Drawing on primary source materials from fifteen archives and five countries, it is a comprehensively researched book.
Miller does an exemplary job of blending discussion of South Africa's international relations with the domestic political situation facing the government of John Vorster. The domestic angle, and in particular Miller's focus on the personal and ideological rivalries within the South African government, provides much needed nuance to historiography. One of the greatest strengths of An African Volk is its masterful explanation of the dynamics between various segments of Afrikaner society, including Afrikaans- and English-speaking segments of the population and the power struggle and personal rivalries...