This latest volume in the series is a book on nation-building in post-apartheid South Africa. An impressive, nuanced study of the South African case, centered on the transition from a long era of harsh authoritarian rule under an apartheid regime monopolized by the white minority to an arrangement adopted two decades ago of black-majority rule under a nominally democratic, multiracial dispensation. The author examines such factors as the perspectives and styles of black leaders Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, profound social inequity, and pervasive crime and corruption and concludes, fairly, that South Africa persists as a deeply fragmented society, a 'minimum nation' whose identity is far more one of convenience than one of stability that promotes shared values, interests, and goals. The book is well-written and reads well. It merits the attention of students and scholars and of policy makers and practitioners of the political art. Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels.