Gwendolen M. Carter Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Gwendolen M. Carter (1906–1991) was a teacher, writer, and Africanist scholar best known for her work on South African politics. For over forty years, she was a path breaking authority on the politics and economy of southern Africa.

Carter received her doctorate from Harvard University in 1938 and taught at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada (1932–1935), Wellesley College (1938–1941), and Tufts University (1942–1943) before joining Smith College (1943–1964), Northwestern University (1964–1974), and the University of Florida (1984–1987). She was the president of the African Studies Association (1958–1959) and vice president of the American Political Science Association (1963–1964). She was also a trustee of the African-American Institute for over twenty years.

Carter’s early work focused on European governance, but her attention shifted to Africa following a trip to South Africa in 1948. From then on, she was instrumental in bringing the study of Africa into the mainstream of comparative politics. She was one of the founders of African studies in the United States. Her work covered a critical period when apartheid had become institutionalized in South Africa and was unchallenged even in the West. Carter made many trips to South Africa, resulting in numerous publications, including the Politics of Inequality: South Africa Since 1948 (1958), Independence for Africa (1960), South Africa’s Transkei: The Politics of Domestic Colonialism (1967), and Which Way Is South Africa Going? (1980). She also edited several works on Africa, including the four-volume From Protest to Challenge: A Documentary History of African Politics in South Africa, 1882–1964 (1972–1977), which chronicled the rise of nationalism and the struggle for equality in South Africa. The South African government subsequently canceled her permanent entry rights to the country.

In addition to her work on Africa, earlier in her career, Carter published a number of studies on international relations and politics. Her first book was The British Commonwealth and International Security (1947). She also coauthored (with John Herz) a textbook on Major Foreign Powers (1972) and wrote a series of books on governments, beginning with Government and Politics in the 20th Century (1961).

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