Source Material on the South African Economy : 1860-1970. By D. Hobart Houghton and /. Dagut.Cape Town, Oxford Univ. Press, 1972-3, 3 vols: xxii, 370 pp. £6,20; xii, 247 pp. £5,00; xii, 263 pp.£5,00.South Africa. An Historical Introduction. By F. Troup. London, Eyre Methuen, 1972, xviii, 428pp. £4,50.It is welcome to see a growing interest inthe South African economy. The three volumesby Houghton and Dagut comprise a collectionof some 550 extracts drawn from nearly 200different sources, arranged by topic in eachof the volumes which are chronological (1860-99; 1899-1919; 1920-70). The extracts are wellchosen and do illustrate both the remarkableeconomic growth of South Africa and the in-tractable problems of that divided country;and there can be little doubt that those unable,or too lazy, to go to original sources will findthese volumes extremely useful. Neverthelesscertain reservations must be made about thissort of source-book which is increasingly beingtaken up by publishers.The first problem is that a collection of snip-pets gives a view of the South African economythat is inevitably episodic and incomplete. Thereader is given, for example, details of the1918 census but little, except passing references,to later growth of population. To make sucha collection of extracts really meaningful anduseful, there needs to be added tables of basicstatistics which would provide the full context.The second problem is that extracts eachtend to concentrate on one facet of the economywith the result that an integrated view of thateconomy escapes the reader. Thus, despite use-ful extracts from the Report oi the Low GradeMines Commission of 1920, and the Third Inter-im Report of the Industrial and AgriculturalRequirements Commission of 1941, neither thegold-mining industry's peculiar need to mini-mise costs nor its importance in capital forma-tion for the rest of the economy is brought out.Teaching Rhodesians. A History of EducationalLongman, 1972, ix, 244 pp. Rh$7,00.This account of the processes of educationin Rhodesia is based on a very extensive biblio-graphy, but in size remains quite a modestvolume. Having selected such a broad canvasfor the portrayal of significant stages, it is notsurprising that Atkinson covers some areasquite thinly.For instance, although the educational ideasSimilarly, equally useful illustrations of themigratory labour system are provided by ex-tracts from the Report of the Economic andWage Commission of 1925-6 and the Reportof the Native Laws Commission of Enquiry of1948, but its crucial role in the gold-mining in-dustry and effect on the rest of the economy arcnot brought out. Although the editors obviouslycannot include everything, it is strange thatthere is no extract from the revealing MinesNative Wages Commission of 1947, nor indeedfrom the Native Land Act of 1913.What is clearly lacking, then, in such acollection is interpretation of the economythat is being atomised by extracts. To someextent Troup's history of South Africa suppliesthis want. For while making no pretension tobeing more than an introduction based onsecondary sources, this example of liberal his-toriography does pay more attention than usualto the economy; and unlike the collection ofextracts, sees the need to talk in terms of poli-tical economy.It is nevertheless significant that neitherTroup, nor the extracts or comments ofHoughton and Dagut, use the term 'class' indissecting the South African economy; and,congruently, the fact that this term is con-sistently not employed by the contributors tothe symposium on Race Relations in SouthernAfrica, printed in this edition, is indicative ofthe nature of both academic debate and officialconcern in Southern Africa rather than of thetrue nature of the political economy thatostensibly is being debated.R.S.R.Policy in Rhodesia. By N. D. Atkinson. London,of H. S. Keigwin are adequately outlined, andH. Jowitt's important contribution to Africanschools is recognized, there is no reference toE. D. Alvord, whose collaboration with Jowittin African development probably provided theessential ingredient in effecting social change.Likewise, the attempt to cover the ten years ofthe Federal experiment in sixteen pages could107