415pp., illus., map, paperback, Cape Town, 2015
"This study highlights challenges faced by settler enterprise which were not unique to that particular region, but crucial in shaping its history. These included rugged geography, slow infrastructure development, insufficient investment capital and a heavy demand for labour to meet the needs of plantation agriculture. The settler economy's relations with and reliance on indigenous African people and imported Indian workers therefore constitute further important dimensions of the book. As such it is a valuable addition to the history of white settlement and its impact, both human and environmental, on southern Africa." W.R. Guest, Professor Emeritus in Historical Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal