As a political sociology of whites in the last years of apartheid in South Africa, this book provides an analysis of the social origins and social context of political attitudes among a sample of middle-class, English-speaking whites in selected suburbs in the city of Johannesburg, Gauteng Province. It reveals that such attitudes emanated in the context of acute and continuing political polarisation, principally between black and white, in the twilight of apartheid and before the first democratic elections.
The book adds another dimension to the interpretation of class dynamics in the study of apartheid South Africa. In contrast to other studies that have concentrated on the working class, and on very restricted political and economic elites – which gives an incomplete picture of class dynamics – this book considers the impact of the middle classes in shaping the history of apartheid South Africa.