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South African Historical Journal Volume 26, 1992 - Issue 1
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FOCUS/FOKUS: T.R.H. DAVENPORT

T.R.H. Davenport: Liberal Historian of South Africa

NICHOLAS SOUTHEY University of South Africa,
Pages 3-22 | Published online: 14 Jan 2009

  • Davenport , R. “ Politics and Parties: From Union to Uniformity ” . (Unpublished Public Lecture, Rhodes University, 1976), 1
  • Davenport , T. R.H. 1977 . “ Inaugural Address, Rhodes University, 25 May 1977, and published as ” . In Tenses in Turmoil Grahamstown
  • Butler , J. , Schreuder , D. and Elphick , R. 1987 . Democratic Liberalism in South Africa: Its History and Prospect Edited by: Butler , J. , Elphick , R. and WelshM , D. Middletown and Cape Town For stimulating discussions of post-1945 liberal historiography and its strengths, weaknesses and potential, see the essays by, ‘Historiography and the Future of Liberal Values in South Africa’, in, eds,(See also S. Marks, ‘The Historiography of South Africa: Recent Developments’, in B. Jewsiewicki and D. Newbury, eds, African Historiographies: What History for Wluch Africa? (Beverley Hills, 1986)
  • Davenport , T. R.H. South Africa: A Modern History 3rd ed. (Johannesburg, 1987), chapter 20
  • Saunders , C. 1988 . The Making of the South African Past: Major Historians on Race and Class Cape Town A quick reading of the two standard analyses of South African historiography reveals many such developments and changes: see(andK. Smith, The Changing Past: Trends in South African Historical Writing (Johannesburg, 1988). Useful detail on changing concerns within the local historical profession can also be acquired from C. Saunders and B. le Cordeur, ‘The South African Historical Society and its Antecedents’, South African Historical Journal, 18 (1986), 1–23
  • Saunders, Making of the South African Past, 47, 76, 122
  • The outline of Davenport's career which follows is based, except where otherwise indicated, on the interview with him, published after this article, as well as informal discussions with him;his personnel file housed in the University of Cape Town archives (hereafter UCT file);and selected documents made available to me from his personal file at Rhodes University (hereafter Rhodes file)
  • Lawson , K. C. 1968 . Venture of Faith: The Story of St John's College, Johannesburg, 1898–1968 Johannesburg 273
  • The Johannian , 4 ‘Vive il Duce’, 9 (June 1941), 18;‘Elegy on a Dead Blitz’, The Johannian, 4, 10 (Dec. 1941), 19;‘La France’, The Johannian, 4, 11 (Oct. 1942), 26–7
  • UCT file, confidential letter of reference, W.A. Maxwell to UCT Registrar, 27 Aug. 1959
  • The Rhodian , 22 1 (Winter 1944), 25. I have unfortunately not been able to find a copy of this essay
  • UCT file, W.A. Maxwell to UCT Registrar, 27 Aug. 1959
  • UCT file, testimonial of M. Roberts, 19 Mar. 1950; testimonial of A.F. Hattersley, 4 Feb. 1950
  • The Rhodian , 22 1 (Winter 1944), 22;The Rhodian, 22, 2 (Summer 1944), 16
  • Butler , G. 1991 . A Local Habitation Cape Town and Johannesburg 48
  • The Rhodian, 24, 2 (1946), 22
  • The Rhodian , 22 1 (Winter 1944), 23;The Rhodian, 22, 2 (Summer 1944), 18;The Rhodian, 24, 1 (1946), 25;The Rhodian, 24, 2 (1946), 30
  • The Rhodian, 24, 1 (1946), 25;The Rhodian, 24, 2 (1946), 30
  • UCT file, W.A. Maxwell to UCT Registrar, 27 Aug. 1959
  • UCT file, testimonial of Dennis Nineham, 10 Apr. 1951
  • UCT file, W.A. Maxwell to UCT Registrar, 27 Aug. 1959
  • Ibid.
  • UCT file, confidential letter of reference, H J. Mandelbrote to UCT Registrar, 30 Aug. 1959
  • His greatest areas of expertise were English, imperial and Commonwealth constitutional law and history, colonisation in Africa and South Africa, but he also taught general undergraduate courses on ancient, medieval and modern history, and honours classes on the French Revolution and medieval and modern themes. See Davenport's application for a lectureship in the History Department: UCT file, T.R.H. Davenport to Registrar, Aug. 1959
  • Davenport , T. R.H. “ The Responsible Government Issue in Natal, 1880–1882 ” . Butterworths South African Law Review (1957), 84–133
  • Thompson , L. M. 1960 . The Unification of South Africa, 1902–1910 Oxford
  • Davenport , T. R.H. “ The Afrikaner Bond, 1880–1900 ” . (PhD thesis, University of Cape Town, 1960)
  • Hancock , W. K. 1962 . Smuts: The Sanguine Years, 1870–1919 19 – 27 . Cambridge esp., 563
  • UCT file, testimonial of W.K. Hancock, 6 Aug. 1959
  • UCT file, letter of appointment, 4 Oct. 1961
  • Davenport , T. R.H. “ Nationalism and Conciliation: The Bourassa-Hertzog Posture ” . Canadian Historical Review, 44, 3 (Sep. 1963), 193–212; the article was also published locally, in Hertzog-Annale (Nov. 1963), 72–87
  • UCT file, T.R.H. Davenport, study leave report and furlough, 1962
  • Private letters in the possession of R. Davenport (hereafter Davenport Papers), Robinson to Davenport, 15 July 1963; Davenport to Robinson, 19 Aug. 1963
  • 1966 . The Afrikaner Bond: The History of a South African Political Party, 1880–1911 Cape Town It was eventually published in 1966 as
  • Davenport , T. R.H. 1963 . ‘The South African Rebellion, 1914’ . English Historical Review , 78 : 74 – 94 . 306
  • Rhodes file, minutes of joint committee to select senior lecturer/lecturer in history, 10 Sep., 18 Sep. and 2 Oct. 1964
  • Butler and Schreuder, ‘Liberal Historiography’, 151–6; Saunders, South African Past, 129–30; Smith, Changing Past, 137–8
  • Marais , J. S. 1961 . The Fall of Kruger's Republic Oxford
  • Rhodes file, testimonial of J.S. Marais, 28 Apr. 1961
  • Rhodes file, testimonial of W. Maxwell, 22 Mar. 1972
  • See May Katzen's review in the Journal of African History, 12, 2 (1971), 335
  • Davenport , T. R.H. “ Civil Rights in South Africa, 1910–1960 ” . Acta Juridica (1960), 11–28. The quotations are from pp. 13 and 27
  • Ibid., 28
  • Rhodes file, curriculum vitae of T.R.H. Davenport
  • Rhodes file, testimonial of Monica Wilson, 11 May 1974
  • Davenport , T. R.H. and Farlam , I. “ The Doctrine of Apartheid in the Parliamentary Speeches of Dr. H.F. Verwoerd ” . (unpublished manuscript, 1959)
  • See, for example, the remark of D. Hobart Houghton, that Rhodes ‘owes’ the chair to Davenport after ‘inducing’ him to come: Rhodes file, testimonial of D. Hobart Houghton, 10 May 1974
  • Saunders, South African Past, 143, 145–6
  • Davenport , T. R.H. “ ‘The Consolidation of a New Society: The Cape Colony’ ” . Edited by: Thompson , L. and Wilson , M. in, eds, The Oxford History of South Africa, vol. 1 (Oxford, 1969), 272–333
  • See in particular his following articles: ‘African Townsmen? South African Natives (Urban Areas) Legislation through the Years’, African Affairs, 68 (1969), 95–109;‘The Triumph of Colonel Stallard: The Transformation of the Natives (Urban Areas) Act between 1923 and 1937’, South African Historical Journal, 2 (1970), 77–96;The Beginnings of Urban Segregation in South Africa: The Natives (Urban Areas) Act of 1923 and its Background (Grahamstown, 1971)
  • Davenport , T. R.H. and Hunt , K. S. , eds. 1974 . The Right to the Land Cape Town eds
  • Davenport , T. R.H. 1979 . “ Land Use and Distribution ” . In South Africa Foundation Briefing Papers No. 15 May T.R.H. Davenport, ‘Some Reflections on the History of Land Tenure in South Africa, Seen in the Light of Attempts by the State to Impose Political and Economic Control’, Acta Juridica (1985), 53–76; T.R.H. Davenport, ‘Can Sacred Cows be Culled? A Historical Review of Land Policy in South Africa, with Some Questions about the Future’, Development Southern Africa, 4, 3 (Aug. 1987), 388–400
  • Interview with T.R.H. Davenport, 5 Mar. 1992
  • de Kiewiet , C. W. 1941 . A History of South Africa, Social and Economic Oxford E. Walker, A History of South Africa (London, 1928), revised as A History of Southern Africa, 3rd ed. (London, 1957)
  • Davenport Papers, ‘Proposal for a History of Modern South Africa in approximately 100000 to 120000 Words’, Feb. 1974
  • Davenport Papers, Christopher Saunders to Davenport, 19 Dec. 1975; Saunders repeated this comment in his review of the book in Social Dynamics, 3, 1 (1977), 74–5
  • Davenport Papers, Eric Stokes to Davenport, 2 Feb. 1974
  • Ibid.
  • Davenport Papers, Eric Stokes to Davenport, 27 Sep. 1975
  • Ibid.
  • Davenport , T. R.H. 1977 . South Africa: A Modern History Johannesburg xv-xv
  • Anonymous review, The Financial Post (Canada), 10 Sep. 1977
  • Beinart , W. “ Scholarly Burdens in South Africa ” . Journal of African History, 19, 4 (1978), 623–5
  • Denoon , D. ‘Liberal History in the Laager’ . African Affairs , 77 308 (July 1978), 403–8
  • Davenport Papers, Davenport's handwritten comments on Denoon's review
  • Review of ‘E.K.’, The Star, 1 Aug. 1977
  • Blatcher , K. A. 1977 . Educational Journal Oct.-Nov.
  • This presumably occurred at Rhodes, at some time during 1979: Davenport Papers, typed notes-including extracts from reviews-for the seminar, and handwritten points in preparation for it
  • He made this remark in a review of the third edition of C.F.J. Muller, ed., 500 Years: A History of South Africa, in Kleio, 14 (1982), 96
  • The third edition was published in 1987, and the fourth-also substantially revised-in 1991
  • Davenport , T. R.H. South Africa: A Modern History 3rd ed. (Johannesburg, 1977), xxiv
  • Bundy , C. 1991 . History from South Africa: Alternative Visions and Practices Edited by: Brown , J. 92 – 3 . Philadelphia Colin Bundy has recently characterised post-war liberal historiography (while not looking at Davenport) as a variant of consensus history: see, ‘An Image of Its Own Past? Towards a Comparison of American and South African Historiography’, in et al, eds
  • Davenport, Tenses in Turmoil, 3
  • For another example of this, see some of his remarks in his presidential address to the South African Historical Society, 31 Jan. 1977, published as ‘The Tiger in the Grass’, South African Historical Journal, 9 (1977), 6
  • UCT file, Davenport's application to attend the conference, and Professor Eric Axelson's supporting remarks, Jan. 1965; see also Saunders and le Cordeur, ‘South African Historical Society’, 9–12, 23
  • Davenport, ‘Tiger in the Grass’, esp. 6; see also his acknowledgement of debt to the Society, which offered him a ‘broadening historiographical experience’, in South Africa: A Modern History, 3rd ed., xxiv
  • See , B . A. le Cordeur ‘The South African Historical Journal and the Periodical Literature on South African History’, South African Historical Journal, 20 (1988), 6–12, esp. 7
  • Although this is based on personal memory after six years as a student in his department from 1978–1983, many former students would testify to Davenport's commitment to his teaching
  • See Grocott's Mail, 26 Aug. 1969, 2 Sep. 1969
  • See, for example, Grocott's Mail, 29 May 1970;4 Sep. 1970;15 Sep. 1970;5 Feb. 1971;5 Mar. 1971;14 Sep. 1971;25 Feb. 1972. See also T.R.H. Davenport, Black Grahamstown: The Agony of a Community (Johannesburg, 1980), 15–36 for an account of this period
  • Davenport, Black Grahamstown.
  • Southey , N. D. “ A Period of Transition: A History of Grahamstown 1902–1918 ” . See (MA thesis, Rhodes University, 1984), 81–3, 157, 365–6; J. Krikler, ‘William Macmillan and the Working Class’, in H. Macmillan and S. Marks, eds, Africa and Empire: W.M. Macmillan, Historian and Social Critic (London, 1989), esp. 47–51; Saunders, South African Past, 50–1
  • See, for example, Grocott's Mail, 6 Feb. 1970; Cory Library, Records of the Grahamstown Branch of the SAIRR, Chairman' Report of T.R.H. Davenport, 1983–84, uncatalogued
  • Cory Library, Funda Records, uncatalogued
  • Davenport , T. R.H. 1977 . Tenses in Turmoil 21 – 2 . Grahamstown
  • Ibid., 25
  • Davenport , R. “ History in South Africa in the 1980s: Why Bother about It? ” . South Africa International, 19, 2 (Oct. 1988), 97
  • Davenport , T. R.H. South Africa: A Modern History 4th ed. (London and Basingstoke, 1991), 557
  • Yale Southern African Research Program Newsletter, 16 (June 1991), 28.

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