Review: Loosing the Bonds
| DOI | 10.1177/002070209805300415 |
| Published date | 01 December 1998 |
| Date | 01 December 1998 |
| Author | J.H. Taylor |
| Subject Matter | Review |
Reviews
As
Pratt points
out,
many taskforce
members
engaged
in
a
wide
range
of
sustained
actions
to
draw
public
attention
to the hypocrisy
and
behind-the-scenes
manceuvring
of
Canadian
corporations
and
governments.
They
learned
valuable
lessons
from
creative
initiatives
such
as
attending
shareholder
meetings
as
dissident
shareholders,
solic-
iting
proxies
for
taskforce
use,
organizing
services
of
witness
close to
the
South
African
trade
mission,
publishing
details
of
Canadian
loans
to the
South
African
government,
meeting
with
high-level
bank
investors,
federal
bureaucrats,
and
ministers
-
even
securing
informa-
tion
from
South
African
managers
about
wages
and
employment
con-
ditions
in
Canadian
firms
in
South
Africa.
The
lessons
the
taskforce
learned
from
its
many
successes -
and
failures
-
will assist
others
inter-
ested
in
stimulating
governments
and corporations
to
re-evaluate
the
purpose
and
structure
of
their
ties
to
other
types
of
repressive
regimes.
Pratt's
long-term
involvement
with
the
taskforce,
her
access
to
a
wealth
of
archival
material,
and
her
careful
research
and
writing
style
have
together
resulted
in
a
gem
of
a
book
that
should
be
on
every
idealist's
bookshelf.
Erika
Simpson/University
of
Western
Ontario
LOOSING
THE
BONDS
The
United
States
and
South
Africa
in
the
apartheid
years
Robert
Kinloch
Massie
New
York:
Doubleday,
1997,
832
pp,
$48.95
It
is
no
surprise
that
this
year's
Gelber
Prize
for
the best
book
in
the
field
of
international
relations
should
have
gone
to
a
work
about
the
United
States
and
South
Africa.
The
end
of
apartheid
and
the
return
of
South
Africa
to
a
full
place
in
the
international
community under
the
leadership
of
Nelson
Mandela,
one
of
the
most admired
figures
on
the
planet,
are
rare
and
hopeful
events.
People
want
to
know
more
about
how
they
came
about.
In
this
major
work, Robert
K. Massie,
a
young
American
historian,
gives
us
an
important
part
of
the
explanation.
To
do
so,
Massie
ran
a
serious
risk
of
being overwhelmed
by
his
material
and
his
dedication to
his
subject. His
book
links
three
stories,
the
stories
of
the
civil
rights
and
divestment movements
in
the
United
States
and
the
story
of
the decline
and
fall
of
apartheid
in
South
Africa.
Any
one
of
these
could
have
made
a
book
in
itself.
In Loosing
the Bonds,
Massie
has
managed
to
provide
a
history
of
each
without
losing
a
sense
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Autumn
1998
787
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