Carter, Gwendolen Margaret
Biography
Gwendolen Margaret Carter was born in Hamilton, Ontario in 1906. The daughter of a physician, she completed a B.A. in history at the University of Toronto in 1929. She received a second B.A. from Oxford in 1931 and returned to Hamilton, Ontario to teach at McMaster University until 1935.
Carter came to the United States to undertake graduate study at Radcliffe College, where she completed both her M.A. (1936) and Ph.D. (1938) in political science. Naturalized as a US citizen in 1948, she taught political science at Smith College from 1943 to 1964, holding the Sophia Smith chair there from 1961. She was then at Northwestern University from 1964-1974 as Melville J. Herskovits Professor of African Affairs. She taught at Indiana University 1974-1984 and was on faculty at the University of Florida from 1984 until her retirement in 1987.
While Carter’s early work focused on European governance, her scholarly attention shifted to Africa following an initial trip to South Africa in 1948. From then on, she specialized in the politics and economy of southern Africa over the course of a career that spanned more than forty years. Carter’s many research trips to South Africa culminated in numerous publications, several of which have become classic texts in both political science and African studies. These canonical works, which detail the dynamics of political change in Africa, include: 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 edited several works about Africa, including the four-volume From Protest to Challenge: A Documentary History of African Politics in South Africa 1882-1964 (1972-1977).
Professor Carter was one of the founders of African Studies in the US and was amongst the most widely known scholars of African affairs in the twentieth century. She was 84 years old when she died at her home in Orange City, Florida on February 20, 1991.
(From: George Smithers Library)
Other Information
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Published Work
1985. Continuity and change in Southern Africa. African Studies Association ; [Gainesville, Fla.] : Center for African Studies, University of Florida (Non-fiction)
1982. [editor, with Patrick O'Meara] Southern Africa : the continuing crisis. Bloomington : Indiana University Press (Non-fiction)
1982. [editor, with Patrick O'Meara] International politics in Southern Africa. Bloomington : Indiana University Press. (Non-fiction)
1980. [editor, with E. Philip Morgan] From the frontline : speeches of Sir Seretse Khama. London : R. Collings (Non-fiction)
1980. Which way is South Africa going?. Bloomington : Indiana University Press (Non-fiction)
1977. [editor, with Patrick O'Meara] Southern Africa in crisis. Bloomington, IN : Indiana University Press (Non-fiction)
1977. [editor, with Thomas Karis] From protest to challenge:a documentary history of African politics in South Africa, 1822-1964. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press. (Non-fiction)
1973. [with John H. Herz] Government and politics in the twentieth century. New York : Praeger Publishers (Non-fiction)
1972. The Government of the Soviet Union. New York : Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (Non-fiction)
1968. Documents of major foreign powers, (Edited) : a sourcebook on Great Britain, Germany, and the Soviet Union. New York : Harcourt, Brace & World (Non-fiction)
1967. [with John H. Herz] Major foreign powers. New York : Harcourt, Brace & World (Non-fiction)
1967. The government of the United Kingdom. New York : Harcourt, Brace & World (Non-fiction)
1966. [editor] National unity and regionalism in eight African states: Nigeria, Niger, the Congo, Gabon, Central African Republic, Chad, Uganda [and] Ethiopia. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. (Non-fiction)
1965. [editor, with Alan F. Westin] Politics in Europe : 5 cases in European government. New York : Harcourt, Brace & World (Non-fiction)
1963. Five African states responses to diversity : the Congo, Dahomey, the Cameroun Federal Republic, the Rhodesias and Nyasaland, South Africa (Edited). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press (Non-fiction)
1962. The Government of the Soviet Union. New York : Harcourt Brace & World (Non-fiction)
1962. [editor, with Ann Paden] African one-party states. Ithaca : N.Y., Cornell University Press (Non-fiction)
1960. Independence for Africa. New York : Praeger (Non-fiction)
1958. The politics of inequality : South Africa since 1948. New York : F.A. Praeger (Non-fiction)
1947. The British Commonwealth and international security : the role of the dominions, 1919-1939. Toronto : Ryerson Press (Non-fiction)
