Status and Respectability in the Cape Colony, 1750-1870: A Tragedy of Manners - African Studies (Paperback)

Review of the hardback: 'There are many valuable insights in this subtle book, often with major historiographical implications ... Ross has produced a bold and original book, which mixes mature reflection with fresh creative enthusiasm. He has confirmed his status as one of the leading historians of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Cape.' The Times Literary Supplement
"...should be read by any student of South Africa's history and by those interested in British cultural imperialism in the nineteenth-century." Roger B. Beck, History
"[Ross's] latest book, Status and Respectability in the Cape Colony, 1750-1870: A Tragedy of Manners, is in many way the most ambitious of all his books. This is a field that has long waited for a historian able to bring together his own original work and studies by other scholars in a free-ranging and provocative synthesis." International Journal of African Historical Studies
"...the book is an interesting read and does, in the end, shed welcome light on what Michel Foucault called the 'microfoundations of power.'" American Historical Review
"...this is a humane, insightful and immensely knowledgeable book that also manages to be moving in its account of the cruelties of rank and the struggles of many to escape, transcend, or exploit status and respectability." Elizabeth Elbourne, Journal of Interdisciplinary History
"Robert Ross has written an absorbing and interesting book that should stimulate more research on culture and representation in South African history." Jrnl of Social History